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TRENT UNIVERSITY
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in 2019 with funding from
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In Uniform Crown 8vo Volumes, neatly bound in red or

blue cloth.

Price One Shilling Each.

The Imperial Parliament

Series.

Edited by SYDNEY BUXTON, M.P.

The intention of this Series is to place within reach of the
general public, at a very cheap rate, short volumes dealing
with those topics of the day which lie within the range of
practical politics.

Notwithstanding the constantly increasing demand for
political literature, to enable electors and others to follow the
argument in connection with particular reforms, there aie
at present no easily obtainable and permanent text-books to
which they can refer, the advocates of these reforms confining
themselves, as a rule to pamphlets, magazine articles, and
speeches, or else discussing their subject in a form beyond
the reach of the masses.

It is hoped that these little volumes, being written in a
judicial spirit, and, though advocating each its own proposal
as far as may be, free from party bias or polemical con¬
troversy — will be recognized as authoritative, and, being
published in a permanent form, may be less evanescent than
ordinary political writings, and be thus of real value. The
Series, though “ Political,” will not be “ Party.”

The volumes will be written by politicians who are
recognised as authorities on the subjects of which they treat.
Each volume will be complete in itself, and the writer alone
will be responsible for the opinions he may express.

The Series comes into competition with no existing publi¬
cation. The valuable “English Citizen” Series details the
rights and responsibilities of citizens as they exist at present :
it speaks of things as they are — this Series will deal with
them as reformers think they should be.

The following Volumes are now in course of issue : —

1. THE MARQUIS OF LORNE.

"IMPERIAL FEDERATION."

[Ready.

2. SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BART., M.P.

‘ ' REPRESENTA TION.” [In the Press.

3. WM. RATHBONE, M.PA
ALBERT PELL, M.P. t
F. C. MONTAGUE. )

LOCAL AND COUNTY GO VERNMENT AND TAX A TION.

[I 71 Preparation.

4. W. S. CAINE, M.P. )

WM. HOYLE. )

"LOCAL OPTION."

[September.

5. MRS. ASHTON DILKE. 1

WM. WOODALL, M.P. J

“ WOMEN SUFFRAGE.”

[September.

6. HENRY RICHARD, M.P. )

J. CARVELL WILLIAMS. )

" DISESTABLISHMENT.”

[October,

7. HENRY BROADHURST, M.P. >

R. T. REID, M.P. J

“ LEASEHOLD ENFRANCHISEMENT.”

[October.

8. RT. HON. W. E. BAXTER, M.P.

" TAXATION AND TARIFFS.”

[November.

9. JAMES BRYCE, M.P.

“ REFORM OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

Other Volumes will follow.

London : SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO.

The Imperial Parliament

EDITED BY

SYDNEY BUXTON, M.P.

“ In every free country it is of the utmost importance
that all opinions extensively entertained, all senti¬
ments widely diffused, Should be stated publicly
before the nation.” — BAGEHOT.

IMPEDE FEDE^I©]^

IMPEWIi FEDEPtfM0fJ

BY THE RT. HON.

THE MARQUIS OF LORNE,

P.C., K.T., G.C.M.G., LATE GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA.

gmtiwm :

SWAN SONNENSCHEIN AND CO.,

PATERNOSTER SQUARE.

FIFTH THOUSAND.

PREFACE.

The Colonies are not at present possessed of the share
they must ultimately have in determining the policy of
the Empire. How they may gradually become possessed
of equal rights of citizenship, and how the burdens con¬
nected with such equality and responsibility may best
be borne by them, is the question involved in the phrase
“ Imperial Federation.” What may be done now to¬
wards the solution of the question cannot be final. We
must proceed slowly, and step by step, and it is best that
the impulse towards advance should come primarily from
the great Colonies themselves.

LORNE.

Kensington Palace.

16059

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

I. “IMPERIAL FEDERATION” — ORIGIN OF PROPOSAL I

II. PLANS FOR FEDERATION . . . . 14

III. “GO SLOW!” . 32

IV. OLD POLICY AND NEW DEPARTURES . . 43

V. WHAT AMOUNT OF FEDERATION NOW EXISTS? 6l

VI. COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION . . . So

VII. RECENT MANIFESTATIONS OF SPIRIT OF UNION 98

VIII. WHAT MAY NOW BE DONE? .... io5

APPENDIX.

TABLE OF STATISTICS . 127

X IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

- Kx -

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN OF PROPOSAL.

“ Imperial Federation ” is a phrase representing an alto¬
gether new idea in the history of nations. Our Colonies,
once strictly dependencies of Great Britain, have grown
into States already possessing political importance in those
parts of the world where they have developed under free
institutions. They have become the owners of vast regions
connected by steam communication. Their relations to¬
wards the mother country and towards each other raise
questions which are exciting attention. Will they still
follow our lead in foreign policy, risking that they them¬
selves be attacked if a war be provoked by England ? Will
Great Britain, on her part, contentedly continue to furnish
them with naval and military protection if they find
themselves in difficulties? Will the power they- possess
to frame their own commercial policy not lead them and
us into divergent lines of action which may be mutually
repudiated ? Does not disintegration loom in the future,

2

3 IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

and is not the independence of Australia, and the an¬
nexation of Canada to the United States, a result sure
to follow the local freedom practised throughout the
Anglo-Saxon Empire?

These are questions asked by many, for Australia
alone has now three million people— as large a population
as had the United States at the time of the War of Inde¬
pendence. Canada has about five millions if we include
the Island of Newfoundland, which, although a separate
colony at present, will probably soon take part and lot in
the fortunes of the rest of British North America.

There is no analogy in the condition of any nation in
the past which can guide us in estimating the forces at
work within our Empire. No State has ever found itself
encouraging its population not only to colonise distant
regions, but to provide the colonies so created with a
government separate in all but in name.

The Spaniards conquered South America, and
dreamed that it might for ever remain under the do¬
minion of their “ standard of blood and gold,” but they
lost their empire by a refusal to encourage autonomy,
and the military conquest at first effected did not succeed
in attracting to America that steady flow of emigration
which could alone keep a living connection between the
old and the new country. Their colonists became
altered in blood as well as in spirit, and little but the
language and the architecture of the houses reminds
the traveller among the Southern Republics of Spanish
valour, Spanish beauty, or of Spanish customs,

ORIGIN OF FROFOSAL.

3

The Dutch, also, have made many conquests, and
have been successful in retaining much of what they won.
But with them success has brought only the permanent
acquisition of Java, a country too hot for white races to
settle and thrive upon its land, and therefore a national
property which can be used more for money profit than
as a second home.

With the French the fault of failure lay not with
the colonists, but with the mother land. There is no
more piospeious colonisation to be seen anywhere than
in those parts of Canada and of the United States which
are now garrisoned by the descendants of the soldiers,
who, leaving Brittany and Normandy in the days of
Louis XIII., and before his reign, founded “ La nouvelle
France.” But these brave men were neglected by a
monarchy which had many ambitions to follow on
theatres of action nearer home. Then came conquest
by the English of most of the French possessions, and
the incorporation into a free Anglo-French province of the
old military settlements whose value becomes more and
more manifest as the story of their country developes itself.

Again, if we look back into older history we find
nothing like that galaxy of States which we call the
British .Empire. Never has such gigantic progress in
wealth, resources, and population attended any human
progeny. As Mr. Forster has well pointed out, of
the corn-growing country in the temperate regions of
America, Australia, and South Africa, no less than forty-
four per cent, are in lands under the Union Jack. The

4 IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

very size, the very immensity of the regions acknow¬
ledging the Queen as sovereign, and looking to these
little islands for present help while they promise us their
future strong support, is enough to make men wonder
and ask to what result such a portent as this great sowing
of world-absorbing colonies will lead.

And other nations, as they have been enabled,
through the gravitating force of race affinities, to
become powerful through union and the abolition of
their distracting and destructive minor dynasties, have
looked on our Empire and have envied it. They have
seen it stretching everywhere, and have found that their
own emigrants disappeared as Frenchmen, as Germans,
or Dutch, or Norsemen, only to reappear in their own
persons, or in those of their sons, as “ Britishers a
result truly distressing to the patriotic foreign mind.

And so they too have cast about to found colonies, and
have plunged into all sorts of hot places, in torrid climes,
where we may leave them, for our survey includes only those
who have followed our flag, and that leads us far enough.

And while the growth of our old “ Dependencies ” has
been sufficient to startle the foreigner and excite our own
surprise, attention among ourselves has naturally been
directed to the colonies in an ever greater degree by the
increased facilities for travel.

Attracted by the chance of good profit, our merchants
have established lines of steam vessels which now ensure
that a voyage to Canada shall not endure longer than
eight days, and to Australia not longer than thirty days.

ORIGIN OF PROPOSAL.

5

Thousands, who a quarter of a century ago would not
have travelled to form a judgment from personal observa¬
tion of the resources of “ Greater Britain,” are now almost
as familiar with Sydney and Melbourne as with London,
Soldiers who knew Canada only from their experience of
Montreal and Quebec, when they were quartered in “ the
Old Jesuits Barracks” in the Cathedral Square, or on “St.
Helen’s Island, ’ now visit by rail the great central
prairies, of which they had only heard in the old days
from the servants of the Hudson Bay Company. It has
become a common summer or autumn trip for those who
can have only a short holiday, to cross the Atlantic
and enjoy the sensation of landing in a world where,
although all nature is new and shows a change of form in
almost every plant, bird, beast, and tree, the minds and
accents and greetings of men are still English.

Thus it is that many travellers now visit the vast river
named after St. Lawrence, and see the fair cities on its
bank and those which are reflected in the waters of the
Canadian lakes, and pass on across the forests to the
newest of the towns which have arisen upon the grassy
plains of Manitoba, and are not content until they have
traversed the long mountain barrier of British Columbia,
and have, like stout Cortez, “stared at the Pacific.”

Almost equally familiar has become the description of
the Cape of Good Hope and of its famous bay, and of
the many winders of the rich Australian communities.
Among these countries there is indeed nothing that man
may desire which he may not have in abundance. What

6

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

woods, except those of Oregon, may compare with the
eucalyptus forests of Western Australia? What pearls
are finer than those brought from the shining sands of
her shallow seas ? Where may more vigorous and more
splendid centres of industrial and commercial activity be
found than in the capitals of Victoria and New South
Wales ? Who that has been to Tasmania has not been
charmed with a climate like an eternal day of English
June? or has not, in New Zealand, found sun, scenery,
and soil to be all — what shall we say ? — too good for
the natives !

There are few indeed who have heard the colonists in
their own homes speak of their future, and have seen and
appreciated the grounds on which their expectations of
future greatness are based, who have not returned enthu¬
siastic in the belief that Britons should stand shoulder to
shoulder wherever they are, and whether they be called
Canadians or Australians.

An education was not considered perfect in past
times if a man had not made the round of the capitals
of Europe. A knowledge of the Colonies and India is
a far more indispensable education now-a-days for an
English public man. Bone of our bone, and flesh of
our flesh, as their people often are, and great as is the
number of emigrants from England continually joining
them, the term “ colony ” is becoming a misnomer when
applied to our kindred beyond the sea, for the number of
old countrymen among them is in many cases compara¬
tively small.

ORIGIN OF PROPOSAL.

7

As a rule the natural increase of population in these
countries is immense. The French Canadians were
only 60,000 in number when Wolfe fell victorious in the
battle on the heights of Abraham. The descendants of
those who fought against him are now fully a million
and a quarter strong, and this increase has been unaided
by any fresh importation from France.

The Irish keep up their home reputation in this matter
of replenishment of the earth, and the other northern
races inhabiting the country show none of that attenua¬
tion of families visible in New England. The 5,000,000
now resident in Canada have reached that number so
rapidly, in spite of large contributions given off in other
days to the United States, that men now living can
remember the first wheeled vehicle made in a village
called “muddy little York,” which is now Toronto, with
110,000 people.

The results achieved in Australia are even more
wonderful-, for, with a smaller general population, they
have cities containing 200,000 and 300,000, whose first
beginnings are well within man’s memory.

Nothing can better illustrate the effect produced on
the minds of English Statesmen by such facts, than the
speech in which Mr. Forster recently exclaimed :

“ May the Colonies long be prosperous; may their inhabitants
remain our fellow countrymen ; and may no spirit of strife spring up
between us. I remember when it used to be a very usual statement
to make that there would be no difference to the trade or commerce
of this country if the Colonies were not connected with the mother
country, whether they started independently themselves, or were

8

IMPERIAL ELDER A TIOtf.

annexed by another country. Many reasons are given for this
supposition, but I think the supposition has disappeared with many
other exploded fallacies, and that nothing can be more brought
home as a fact to the commercial community and to the public
generally than this fact, that the trade of the country very much
depends upon keeping up our connection with the Colonies, and
the statement that trade follows the flag is abundantly proved.
If there were no longer a flag to follow, trade would cease to
exist in this country itself. I will take the opportunity of giving
some figures which have been prepared by a friend upon whom
I can rely. The trade which the inhabitants of Great Britain
conducts throughout the world is about one-third of the total trade
of the whole world. The annual trade of the British dominions
beyond the seas with the United Kingdom is, exports and imports,
^190,000,000, and with other countries ^170,000,000 — a total of
.£360, 000, 000, or six times the value of the annual trade of the
United Kingdom at the beginning of the century. You have heard
a great deal about the depression of trade which has ruled throughout
the whole of the United Kingdom, and I ask, if it were not for the
Colonies, what would the depression be ? The trade of the United
Kingdom with foreign countries in 1S72 was more than ^248,000,000,
and in 1882 it was ^214,000,000, a decrease in the ten years of
£3 4 ,000,000. The trade of the United Kingdom with British pos¬
sessions, which in 1872 was ^66,000,000, had increased in 1882 to
^92,000,000.

“We should not have had these figures if the Colonies had been
separated from the mother country. We are also largely dependent
for the food of the country upon our Colonies, and we cannot help
the fact. If we attempt to prevent it, it can only be by legislation,
and we could only have prevented it by limiting the number of our
population, and by starving them down. The increase in the amount
of wheat imported into the country in 1SS2 from India, North
America, and from Australasia against that in 1872, was 8,000,000
cwt. from India, 1,000,000 cwt. from North America, and 2,000,000
cwt. from Australasia. Ihe total trade of imports and exports
of the United Kingdom with the world outside British possessions
had increased from 1854 to 1S82 more than 77 per cent., but the
total trade, import and export, of the United Kingdom with British
possessions had increased more than 170 percent. This is sound

ORIGIN OF PROPOSAL .

9

evidence of the importance of the Colonies, and, looking at it simply
in a commercial light, it is of the utmost importance to Great Britain
as an empire that she should retain possession of and maintain the
connection with her Colonies. It is sometimes said that notwith¬
standing our connection with the Colonies, they levy duties upon
our goods. That is true, but I cannot see the hardship of it. If
they were not our Colonies, judging from what has happened else¬
where, they would levy far larger duties. There is a vast difference
between the duties levied by the United States and those levied by
Canada ; and I wonder if we should do anything approaching the
trade in Canada if they maintained the tariffs of the United States.”

The calculation which tells us that we own eight ,
million square miles, or one-eighth of the habitable earth,
and that whereas we had on our Colonial soil only three
and a half millions in 1851, we have, counting South
Africa, now eight and a half millions or nine millions, is
enough to make us value the Colonies. They will probably
have in another century one hundred millions ! They are
becoming conscious of their power now, and perhaps that
is another reason why we are paying them more atten¬
tion. In another fifty years how vital will be for us
their alliance or their enmity.

“ Why not leave well alone ? ” ask some of those who
believe that nothing better than our present relations
with our Colonies is likely to come of any attempt at a
closer union. We may certainly be glad that so good a
feeling exists as that now evident between Britain and
her Colonies; but it by no means follows that the institu¬
tion of an association bound to watch how the “ world
wags ” and how the portions of it under our flag are
affected by events, will not prove of service.

10

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

A little learning may do harm in any place, and at
first there may be crude ideas founded on scanty in¬
formation and hastily-drawn conclusions which might,
when acted on, prove injurious. But it is not probable
that the recent formation of the Federation League can
lead to the pressing of any scheme which does not
command assent here and across the seas, while the dis¬
cussion of questions affecting the Colonies in their rela¬
tion to England must tend to a closer knowledge and to
the destruction of theories which are based on delusions.

It is right that the primary objects of such a body
should be stated vaguely, for it is the intention of the
members to invite contributions to their information, and
no definite action on any given point has been dog¬
matically proposed by them. The good-will shown to
our kinsfolk in the intention of the new Association is
undoubted, and the aim of the League is not to foster
England’s interests otherwise than in conjunction with
those of her friends. It is not to push any scheme of
trade, but to see how best the commerce of all may be
advanced and protected.

Recent expensive wars at the Cape, annexations of
groups of islands in the neighbourhood of Australia, the
Fishery and other questions that have arisen, and may
arise, on the North American continent, have all com¬
pelled us to take a review of our responsibilities in con¬
nection with our Colonies, and to consider how far, in the
event of trouble, we may rely upon their assistance to ade¬
quately support the commercial interests of our scattered

ORIGIN OF PROPOSAL.

ii

Empire. It is remarkable that, although the matters
here indicated are slowly coming to the surface, and
have provoked discussion, they have not been forced
upon the public attention suddenly, or by any violent
injury or catastrophe. The review men are taking of
our position, and the debates as to how best we can
make our relationships of standing value, have been the
natural outcome of slowly developing causes and effects.

Politicians belonging to both of the great parties in
the State have joined the Federation League. The
leaders have expressly declared that they do not desire
at the present moment to propound any definite theories,
or to push any premature scheme for closer union of
the Empire. The society has been formed for the purpose
of discussing any plans proposed for such objects. The
suggestions actually made have varied in importance from
comprehensive projects of universal commercial union
and common contributions for a world-wide military and
naval organization, to such a trivial proposal as the per¬
sonal recognition of distinguished colonists by a nomina¬
tion to the peerage.

While this League has enlisted the sympathies of men
who have served the State as Liberals or Conservatives, it
is to be noted that much interest has been shown in its
aims by numbers of the hand-workers among the industrial
classes. It is too recently formed an organization to
have yet elicited opinions which may make it bear its
best fruits, for the desires, intentions, or even the fears
and misgivings connected with its inception, must take

12

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

time to be fully expressed among all those peoples whose
future might be affected. Already in Canada a tendency
has evinced itself to form analogous associations, and a
similar response may be expected from Australia. While,
however, the talk in Great Britain in reference to the
League has been connected chiefly with the question
of common defence, it has elsewhere shown an inclina¬
tion to dwell more upon a commercial understanding.
Seemingly different as are these views and the lines of
argument by which they are supported, they tend to direct
attention to a common issue ; for commerce must have
protection by armed force, if it is to increase through
that confidence which can alone sustain its operations.

The mere size of our Colonies, the increasing import¬
ance of securing them as good markets, their past and
present desire to give British goods the preference, the
belief that if they become independent or annexed to a
foreign power the advantages they now offer will be lost,
are all considerations which, together with nobler senti¬
ments, have influenced men in “taking stock” of our
position.

That we must make our choice between a closer
union or disintegration is a fear expressed by some,
whose logical faculties are apt to run away with their
experience. It seems almost “ too good to be true ”
that with greater expansion there shall not come a
greater strain on our relations with our kindred. This
is a fear and a misgiving which haunts those who cannot
place sufficient confidence in the illogical wisdom of the

ORIGIN OF PROPOSAL.

13

Anglo-Saxon procedure of government. We have dis¬
located the central power so much that it is only by a
greater balance of moral and physical strength that any
central authority can be said to exist at all, and then only
by the free assignation to it on the part of the Colonies,
of the power it retains.

A declaration of independence seems to be only un¬
popular in the Colonies because by a nominal dependence
on us they secure a real national freedom, with security
against foreign attack. Will the security against foreign
attack long remain obtainable only through union with
ourselves, and will the obligation to fight all enemies be
reciprocally acknowledged by the Colonies in future years
if we are attacked ?

These are the doubts which make many anxious to
draw more “closely the bonds between us.” This can be
done by rendering those bonds mutually valuable, and
making it plain to all men that they are so. Hence the
institution of the Federation League, and the cry for
“ Imperial Federation.”

CHAPTER II.

PLANS FOR FEDERATION.

The constitution of the Federation League is only one
of the results which have followed the attention excited
by the growth and developing policy of our Colonies.
Plans had previously been formulated for “ closer union,”
but had excited little observation. It may be as well
to glance at the first impressions produced by the news
of the formation of the League, and the support given
to it by public men at home and elsewhere.

The attitude of a portion of the Canadian press
towards the League has been hostile, chiefly because the
speeches made by the members who met in London
were vague enough to give room for unfounded fears.
“Mr. Forster’s idea,” said the chief Liberal paper at
Toronto, “may be said in brief to be that the Colonies
should at once begin to bear a full share of the total cost
of all he calls defence, and that they should only have
the right, through their agents, of saying what they
thought about any war that seemed imminent.” A
curious instance of the want of confidence in their own
power and position is shown by such an utterance. It is

PLANS FOP FEDERATION. 15

only worthy of observation because it proves that so
jaundiced and acrimonious is political controversy, that
it is difficult for any person to be held as an impartial
public servant. It would seem that a professional diplo¬
matic training is the only means of providing an envoy
who can be trusted by both political parties in an Anglo-
Saxon state. American ministers are changed with their
party and are recalled as soon as a new President takes
office, and they, as well as Colonial envoys, would be
subject to the same limitation in representative value,
were it not for the fervid patriotism which regards them
during their tenure of office as neither “Democrat”
nor “ Republican.” In the eyes of their fellow-citizens
the shortcomings of party nomination are forgotten in
the “American Minister.”

Would that there were more of this patriotic feeling
among our own colonists, and that love of country could
altogether obliterate in their minds the home prejudices
they have conceived against a public man when he has
become the servant of the whole people and labours
for them in another land.

The want of confidence exhibited by such utterances
in the strength of their own position is yet more incom¬
prehensible. Just as it is feared that their envoy will
be too much overshadowed and biassed by London’s
influences, so it is assumed that sufficient weight will not
be attached to the opinion of his country. They know
not their own power, and frightened at what is not even a
shadow, believe that a diminution of their own freedom

1 6 IMPERIAL FEDERATION,

is possible by the anticipated encroachments made on it
through the preponderating influence of other statesmen
than their own. They demonstrate thus an absolute ig¬
norance of relative power. England could not, if she
would, diminish by one iota the rights and privileges she
is proud to see her children use so well. Any opinion
expressed on Canadian subjects by Englishmen can only
have weight in so far as it is caught up by Canadian
opinion, and comes back to Britain with the signature of
a people no longer her dependents, but her strong allies.

The very power which the too-dififident Canadian
desires in imagination for his country, the very reputation
of freedom and independence arising from that power,
are treasures in England’s eyes, because she knows that
such freedom in her sons is the surest pledge of affection
for herself. Canada and Australia are too strong to be
suspicious. They cannot be either disregarded or driven.
They must be consulted, and find that consideration
which is their due. And it does not follow that because
men cast about for an adequate expression of the free
and loving relations existing between them and ourselves,
aught but the majesty of their own volition shall pro¬
nounce the decree.

When we hear of such fears as those implied in an
apprehension that England desires to impose fresh
burdens of her own mere motion, we must remember
that unnatural as such ideas seem to us, the colonists
have seen during recent years that England is concen¬
trating her military power. Formerly she undertook

PLANS FOR FEDERATION. i7

to provide the garrisons for Canada, and both there
and in New Zealand her troops were ready to do work
which now falls to the hands of the new countries. Im¬
perial troops have been wholly withdrawn from Austra¬
lasia, and the slender garrison of Halifax, a force wholly
insufficient adequately to guard that important military
and naval station, is the only fraction of the Imperial
army retained in North America.

The English Treasury used to spend over two and a
halt millions every year where it now spends nothing, for
we cannot call the thousand or two spent on an Imperial
prison in Australia, or the small amount spent at Halifax,
a Colonial expense. Halifax we keep because it is a
naval coaling station, and the Australian prison might be
given up to-morrow unless we wish to keep it up for our
own purposes. Military posts are now expensive to us,
but the great self-growing Colonies represent, in all but
war time, a pure financial gain. They have undertaken
their own defence, expecting certainly to be assisted by
us in war time, but in ordinary times demanding no
return of the troops we have withdrawn from them. Yet
this withdrawal has thrown heavy expenses upon them,
for their military budget is of necessity becoming heavier
the more they realize the wisdom of organization. Our
act of making them responsible for their own home
defence was wise, for it stimulated them to keep a good
militia which would more than double our power to de¬
fend them in war ; but it threw burdens on them, and the
suspicion among some of them is not unnatural, however

3

1 8 IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

unfounded it may be, that we desire to impose the obli¬
gation of foreign service as well as that of home defence.

If therefore the aims of the League be at first looked
at askance, we must not be discouraged. Let us see,
for instance, what encouragement may be derived from
the words of leading Colonial statesmen.

Mr. Blake is the Leader of the Opposition in Canada,
and it may be gathered from his speeches that, although
he does not believe that the present form of connection
between England and Canada possesses the element of
permanence, there is a possibility and hope, notwith¬
standing enormous difficulties, of re-organizing the Em¬
pire on a Federal basis, so as to reconcile British
connection with British freedom. Sir J ohn Macdonald,
the Prime Minister, who for more than forty years has
been in public life, and for the greater portion of that
long period has been in office, has joined the Federa¬
tion League, and has spoken warmly of the good to be
effected by such an association, and of his assurance that
Canada’s support would always be given in case of wars
of defence. He added that he believed Britain’s wars
would never be wars of aggression.

Mr. Service, Premier of Victoria, has not only shown
a desire to have the Federative principle introduced in his
own country, but has expressed his hope that Australia
may have a greater share and more defined position in
the Imperial Economy. “It may be difficult,” he says,
“to say in what way so vast and scattered an Empire can
be federated; but any scheme that may be decided upon,

PLAN'S FOR FED ERA TION.

19

while it cannot take from us anything that we at present
possess, must give to the Colonies more tangible in¬
fluence, and more legal and formal authority, than they
have now.” Other Australian statesmen representing
other provinces have expressed themselves in a similar
sense,

It is certain that the fair and strong sisterhood of free
communities in Australia will combine some day, and
that they will form a Power whose rule shall be paramount
in the Pacific, and whose sceptre can brook no rival
under the Southern Cross. They will demand place
and voice in the Imperial council, even should they not
now be more united and emphatic in declaring their
wishes. It is evident that from the utterances of states¬
men occupying widely different positions the same idea
may be gathered, that there is a want of common orga¬
nization for defence and for foreign policy ; and further
that the organization wanted is one that shall give free
scope to the voices which represent those parts of the
Empire which are not comprised in the Three Kingdoms.

Hitherto these kingdoms have alone decided all such
questions. More and more, as the change resulting from
growth makes itself discernible, the great Colonies will
demand a knowledge of what passes, and a share in
the determination of the policy affecting all ; and will not
be content with the volunteered confidence, or with the
withholding of information on his mere judgment of what
is best, of any individual Secretary of State.

A society such as the League, bound to consider and

20 IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

bring to public attention all that touches Colonial
questions, is likely to be welcomed and suppoited by
intelligent public opinion everywhere ; and it is evident
that influential leaders already view it with favour, and
recommend its expansion by branch societies in the

Colonies.

Some of the practical proposals which have already
been flung up like balloons into the air to see how the
wind blows may be mentioned. They are few, and it is
fortunate they are so, for it is most advisable in this
respect that we should not push ahead too fast. Our
present relations are good, and although certain circum¬
stances might arise which might put a strain upon them,
yet it is only when some very unexampled and stiongly
expressed wish for an alteration is evinced that we
should be safe in carrying it into effect.

Men say that the Federation of the Empire is a ques¬
tion mainly for the people ; and so it is, but the peoples
affected are so widely separated that they much need the
counsel and guidance of leaders, who must permeate
the Colonies with their ideas if they are to carry them
along with them to any happy result.

Lord Grey’s opinion is entitled to much weight, for he
has had long experience of the working of Colonial
affairs, and he recollects with satisfaction the part taken
in the work of Colonial Government of a Committee of the
Privy Council which some years ago was called the Board
for Trade and the Plantations. It advised the Sovereign
on points connected with the Colonies, and, cuiiously

FLAN'S FOR FEDERA TION.

21

enough, was even in 1849 sufficiently ambitious for the
future of Australia to advise at that date the Federal Union
of the Southern Colonies under one Governor-General.

The position given by Canada to her representative in
England when she in 1880 appointed Sir Alexander
Galt High Commissioner, had been pointed out by the
Canadian Governor-General of that day as affording
in the person of the envoy a means of incorporating
a Canadian statesman in the diplomatic machinery of
the Empire.

At the Colonial Institute in 1884 a suggestion was
formally made by him that a council in which such
envoys might sit should form part of the regular Imperial
Government. It is noteworthy that Lord Grey approved
of such a scheme, and in 1885 he spoke on the subject
as follows :

“ The difficulty of devising any mode of enabling the Colonies to
exercise any real influence in the Imperial Government is very great,
and I must confess myself quite unable to propose one which would
be altogether satisfactory. But, in the absence of any better ar¬
rangement, I am still of opinion that a suggestion I threw out in an
article I contributed to the Nineteenth Century of April, 1S79,
might be adopted with advantage. What I proposed was that we
should revert to what was the practice up to the middle of the last
century, of making large use of a Committee of the Privy Council
in the management of Colonial affairs. The Board of Trade, under
the name of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade and Planta¬
tions, took an effective part with the Secretary of State in Colonial
administration. This practice has long fallen into disuse, and the
amount of other business now assigned to the Board of Trade makes
it undesirable that it should be revived ; but I think advantage
would be derived from giving the Colonial Secretary the assistance
of another Committee appointed for that purpose, which might also

22

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

be made the means of enabling the most important Colonies to
exercise the influence they ought to have in directing the policy
of the Government in all matters affecting the common interests of
the whole Empire. With this view the Queen might be advised
to appoint to be members of her Privy Council such of the Agents
of the principal Colonies as might receive from the Legislatures they
represent sufficient salaries to enable them to reside in this country
and perform the duties assigned to them.

“To a Committee composed of these Colonists, with such other
members of the Privy Council as her Majesty might from time to
time direct to be summoned to it, the Colonial Secretary might
be empowered to refer such questions as he should think proper for
their advice. The Reports of this Committee would, of course,
have no legal authority till confirmed by the Queen, on the advice of
her Ministers, whose responsibility for all the acts of the Govern¬
ment would thus remain unaltered. But the Colonial Agents
representing the several Legislatures would exercise a powerful
influence in guiding the policy of the Government. Questions arise
which more immediately affect the Colonies, but on which peace or
war for the Empire may eventually turn — such as those relating
to the maintenance of British rights of fishery. These would
naturally be referred to such a Committee ; and if a quarrel with
some foreign State should arise from the course taken by our
Government, it would have far more hearty support from the
Colonies if they had, through their representatives, been consulted
on the steps that had led to it. There are very many other matters
on which the wishes and opinions of the Colonies ought to have
weight in deciding on the measures of the Government, and on all
these the proposed Committee would enable them to make them¬
selves heard. The Imperial Government would not rightly resist
what might be found from the proceedings of the Committee to be
the general wish of the Colonies ; and, on the other hand, it would
derive from it valuable support in resisting unreasonable wishes
sometimes put forward by the Colonies. That unreasonable wishes
and demands are sometimes urged by the Colonies is very clear.
Nothing, for instance, can, I think, be more unreasonable than the
demand which seems now to be made by the Australian Colonies
that England should set up a claim to dominion over the whole
Pacific, with a right to exclude all other nations from islands which

PLANS FOR FEDERATION.

neither she nor her Colonists are able to occupy and administer. If
this demand were gravely put forward in the Colonial Committee
which I have suggested, the Secretary of State would almost cer¬
tainly find himself supported in opposing so preposterous a demand
by representatives of all the Colonies not immediately concerned.
At the same time, the claim of the Cape Colonists that no foreign
Power should be allowed to occupy Zululand would probably be
supported by the whole Committee. In short, the English at home
would be able to secure support for their opposition to manifestly
unreasonable Colonial propositions among the reasonable Colonial
representatives, but when the English beyond the sea were unani¬
mous in opposing home policy, there would be a free presumption
that we were in the wrong. Such at least seems a reasonable and
a practical suggestion, which only needs to be worked with prudence
and common sense in order to arrest the tendencies working in
favour of disintegration and to operate directly in favour of the
restoration and the maintenance of the unity of the Empire.”

Some objections expressed to this plan may be given
in the form of double columns, giving in one the objec¬
tion and in the other the answer.

Such a council would lead to
delay.

Indian Council has been proved
an unnecessary adjunct to the
machinery of the India Office.

Colonial envoys, being at hand,
can be consulted as soon as a
Cabinet or foreign ambassa¬
dors. Telegraphs make neces¬
sary communication with the
Colonies instantaneous.

This may be granted without
affecting question of Colonial
Council. In Indian Council
voices only of old ex-officials
are heard, and no serious
result is possible from neglect
or over-ruling of their advice.
Envoys’ voices are the respon¬
sible voices of living nations,
whose goodwill or hostility
must influence decisions.

24

IMPERIAL FEEE RATION.

Envoys would not understand
Crown Colony questions so
well as Colonial Office
Clerks.

In nine cases out of ten, ques¬
tions discussed would concern
one Colony only, or at most
two. Envoys of those not
affected would have no busi¬
ness,

“Log rolling,” or agreement
between Colonies to tax
British Treasury, would arise.
Newfoundland might say to
Queensland, you get John
Bull to protect my fisheries,
and I’ll get him to annex
New Guinea. John Bull to
protect us both against con¬
sequences.

Agents- General might thwart
English Government.

English Cabinet should alone
be consulted.

Granted, and they would not
interfere in them.

Where envoys are interested they
would say so. Where not,
they would let transactions,
as now, be concluded by
Colonial Secretary and agent
of colony affected. That
some may listen without inter¬
fering is not an objection
except against all councils.

Common sense is more likely to
be exercised by Council of
Representatives than by two
working together to influence
Colonial Secretary. This last
procedure could take place
now, if it be possible or likely
to take place at all.

Impossible consistently with the
Colonies wishing to be repre¬
sented. Colonial air removes
English party hate, and even
eradicates Irish hostility.

This theory gives up hope of
keeping any but our own
island and fortified posts in
Empire.

PLANS FOR FEDERATION.

25

What use ? when Canada de¬
clares herself against a war,
how could Council proceed ?

They have not asked for a
Council.

Would be instituted to influence
Colonies for Free Trade.
Would be instituted to get
Protection introduced into
England.

“ A proposal to restore Down¬
ing Street rule.”

Political and commercial ego¬
tism make it impossible.

The British Government would
probably have to acquiesce in
any general dissent to a war.
If dissent came from one great
Colony alone, that Colony’s
antagonism would not be
stronger, but modified, if she
were consulted about danger,
instead of, as now, having the
chance of being thrust into
it without warning.

True — and don’t have it con¬
stituted till they do. The
proposal is only a few weeks
old.

Moral of such objections : Each
part of Empire must take its
own way in commercial
policy.

On the contrary, gives surest
means of counteracting any
tendency to such a night¬
mare.

Trade of each on its own lines
can be protected by power of
all. Imperial machine can
push interest of each. Witness
Canadian envoy and British
ambassador working as coad¬
jutors to get Canadian Treaty
of Commerce with Spain.
Different Trade Treaties for
different parts of Empire can
be negotiated by combined
Imperial machinery.

26

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

Put relatives into same house Council would not put them into
and they will quarrel. same house, but add a storey

(for increasing family) to
house of each ; ensure com¬
mon drainage provisions to
prevent sewer gases ; and
engage a policeman, paid by
each householder, to protect
property of all.

Of the “pros” and “cons” above enumerated, the most
important is the question, “ Who wants this Council ? ”
There may be a great deal of good in the proposal, but
the good must first be seen by the Colonies, and they
must express their desire to be thus consulted before any
Council be constituted.

Another proposal, likely enough to receive some favour-
in the future, has been made, namely, that some body
shall be formed, having many of the features of the
Federal Senate of America. At Washington an assembly
very much less numerous than the House of Represen¬
tatives unites in the Senate the representation of the
several States, which, until the Civil War, were always
called “ sovereign states,” and may still be said to merit
that title, although their sovereignty is qualified by
inability to break loose from the Federal tie. The war
settled that point, and the right of secession was surren¬
dered with the last of the Virginian armies when Lee
gave up his sword at Appomatox. No Federation should
allow the right of secession.

But the sovereignty, although limited by the disability
to destroy the Union, remains for all internal purposes

rLANS FOR FEDERATION.

27

Each state is even allowed to raise what troops it pleases
as State Militia, and so to possess its own armed forces.
It can make what laws it chooses on the tenure of
property, on taxation for State revenue, on marriage
and every civil matter, but is not allowed to leave the
Union or embroil it at home or abroad.

It is possible that hereafter some mode may be de¬
vised by which a small body of elected men may, through
some such device as that which sends senators to Wash¬
ington, contribute Imperial councillors to some central
Imperial body. The difficulties are great, even in the
collection of a small number of men so chosen, but it
would be far easier to get good men to sit in such a
capacity than it would be to obtain members for any
such assembly as that advocated by those who think
only of assemblies like the House of Commons. In
the meantime a dislike to being outvoted would affect
each proposal as far as the Colonial mind is concerned.
It would seem wiser not to hurry, but to adapt ourselves
to exigencies as they arise.

The responsibility of the members of such an Imperial
Senate would be as perfect as is that of the honourable
gentlemen who each speak in the name of an American
state, and the power of the Federal Senate is one of the
most remarkable of the political phenomena of our day.
On foreign affairs it has the preponderating influence,
and is indeed a very notable instance of a body at first
devised only as a check to the popular House becoming
the most powerful of the National Assemblies.

28 IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

The experiment has proved that in a vast Empire,
composed of different states having diverse geographical
interests, men elected indirectly for a given term of
years may form a governing body, having a vast and
abiding power. The German “Reich’s” Federal Council
is another case of representation in a small focus of
different states.

The German case can hardly give us any useful lesson,
for the German states are now only nominally sovereign,
and their Federal Council has little power, and will have
less as the “ particularist ” party’s influence wanes and
dies. The American Senate gets through its work easily
enough, although it has far more to discuss than would
any British Imperial Senate.

Plans for larger popular assemblies have been advo¬
cated. On this subject writers have ventured on the
boldest theories. It has been suggested that a Federal
Parliament representing in proportionate numbers the
population of the whole Empire should meet in Fondon,
and that to this great body all affairs which are not local,
and all Imperial policy, should be submitted. It is, how¬
ever, difficult to conceive how such a large body would
work. The British Parliament finds the greatest difficulty
in getting through the labour which it annually under¬
takes, and any addition to the programme would render
the progress of measures discussed a task too great for
the best parliamentary organizer or tactician.

Following the example of the Canadian Federation, it
has been also suggested that a fixed number of members,

PLANS POP FEDERATION.

29

say 100, should be allotted by Great Britain to a Parlia¬
ment dealing with Imperial affairs alone, to the exclusion
of all local questions, and that the Colonies should be
represented in the ratio of their population as each would
stand relatively to the British 100. In this proposal
the idea has been taken from the Canadian Confedera¬
tion. There the fixed number of sixty-four was allotted
to the province of Quebec in order to guard the integrity
of the autonomy of that province, with its characteristics
so largely French and Roman Catholic; while the other
provinces contributed their quota to the Federal Parlia¬
ment in proportion to the so-called “ pivot ” number of
members sent up to it by Quebec.

The difficulties in the way of this scheme would not be
so much the intricacy and variety and number of questions
discussed as the difficulty of impracticability of function.
With both the last-mentioned schemes, the distance
between the homes of those composing such an assembly
and the place of meeting, seems at once an objection.
When it takes sixty days to come and return it is difficult
to imagine how the Australian contingent could be ex¬
pected to attend.

Another objection is this : that in the Imperial questions
introduced it is conceivable that the Colonial representa¬
tives would not care to be constantly outvoted by those
representing British ideas j while in course of time, as the
Colonies became more populous, we should not care to
be outvoted by the majority of the members who happen
to hail from our “auxiliary kingdoms,” as Sir John Mac¬
donald calls the Colonies.

3°

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

One argument in favour of an attempt to bring
together so numerous an assemblage as that contem¬
plated by the advocates of an Imperial Parliament repre¬
senting every party and possessing executive powers, is
that responsibility would necessarily give much weight to
any vote. It is very doubtful if colonists could believe
that men attending the Parliament in London would be
sufficiently in contact with their constituencies to make
the responsibility of the vote given at Westminster very
real. It is well known to us that the result of a debate
may largely vary according to the passing emotion among
the constituencies at the time. An Australian from
Sydney would only know by telegraph of any suddenly
developed opinion affecting any question which might be
under discussion here. Any wave of excitement de¬
veloped among them would be supposed hardly to reach
him. The member representing an antipodean consti¬
tuency in England would thus not be so much a popular
representative as would his colleague sitting on the same
bench and representing a London district with which he
is in daily touch and contact. To make such responsi¬
bility valid it would be necessary that the representative
should be a man having more than a local knowledge of
his people’s wishes. Pie should be constantly returning
to them in order to keep up his contact with them, and
should even then, if he desires to possess and retain their
confidence, be a man of more marked character and
greater ability than can be readily found in the rank and
file of Parliamentarians. He should rather be elected

PLANS FOR FEDERA T/ON.

3i

on some such principle as that which gives to the
Senate of the United States a senator for California
chosen through an indirect electoral system.

Nomination to the House of Lords of prominent
politicians from distant parts of the Empire has been
proposed. There are, however, very few politicians
having influence in their native Parliaments who would
leave them to sit in a House of Peers. Want of respon¬
sibility would always be held in their own country to
invalidate the value of their voice and vote. The best
that can be said for such a proposal is that by means of
such nominations a deserved compliment might be paid
to distinguished judges or to others who from very rare
circumstances may not have been able to take part in
the more arduous labours of public life at home. Their
presence in “ The Lords ” might be considered as a
compliment paid to the ability of the individuals, but
could hardly be looked upon as expressing England’s
wish to have the Colonial voice heard as a guiding
or directing influence. There are a few, but there are
very few men, to whom the compliment might be paid,
who could at once accept it with pleasure themselves,
and find their satisfaction reflected in the minds of their
fellow-citizens. On this the governors would be able to
form an opinion, and any selection should be made with
the governors’ and their ministry’s full concurrence.

CHAPTER III.

“go slow!”

Our people, stirred by the Imperial instinct, are
already putting forward the cry, “Draw tighter the
bonds between ourselves and the Colonies.” Many
political associations are pronouncing these words as
formulating what our American cousins would call “ a
plank in the party platform.” It is to be hoped that
the sentiment, properly guided, may be “a plank” not
in any party platform, but in the national policy. But
if it is to be successful, it must not try to “ tighten
bonds ” as men would draw tight a slack rein to curb a
restive horse. It must rather be the hauling on our own
ropes to brace the yards which bear our own sails, that
they may be squared to catch the Colonial breezes, for it
is with those winds that the vessel of State can make
most headway.

But we must wait for the winds. We can do but little
without them, although we may have some auxiliary
steam power on board. In plain words, we must pro¬
pose no changes unless we find that the Colonies desire

“ GO SLOW! ’

33

also to make them. This axiom is so important that it
bears repetition.

It is far too early to have any cut-and-dried schemes
as to the best manner in which closer union may be
effected. Any new movement is only too likely at first
to be misapprehended and misunderstood. As a proof
of this, we have heard in England that by moving at all
we are sure to commence the disintegration which we
wish to avoid.

IV e must prove that fears such as those expressed in
the following cry of alarm written by a Canadian, and
showing accurately enough the mind of a large number
of the citizens, is founded on error. It comes from the
pushing and thriving city of Winnipeg.

“If an alteration in our existing trade relations with other coun¬
tries is impracticable or undesirable, why in the name of common
sense do we talk about this Imperial Federation proposition at all ?
We already have all the protection we need from the Empire. And
we pay for it too. Do we not run the constant risk of being in¬
volved in British wars? Would our country not be the first object
of attack in the event of hostilities with almost any of the great
Powers ? We should, then, be forced to defend ourselves whether
the war was aggressive or not.

“Our available funds are all required for the development and
improvement of our own land, why should we consent to contri¬
bute to the expenditures of the Empire ? What interest have we in
the liquidation of the English national debt ? What would it profit
us to see our taxes diverted to Australia or India, or some other part
of the world of equally little interest to us ? This so-called Imperial
Federation scheme, of which the projectors themselves know little
more than that they know nothing, is the very silliest craze that ever
originated in the brain of a crank and was taken up by a fad-hunting
people.

4

34

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

“ The British Empire is as much a unit to-day as it ever will he,
because it is as much a unit as it is desirable that it should be. . There
is loyalty throughout it to the central power, because there is satis¬
faction with the existing state of affairs. Dissatisfaction will only
arise when there is a change. To make such a change would be to
court dissatisfaction, with the certainty that there would then be no
means of allaying it. Once incorporated with the proposed union,
withdrawal would be for ever out of the question. The central
power would be as likely to let one of the counties of England set up
on its own account as to permit the withdrawal from the Federation
of any Colony. At the present time the knowledge that we have
only to express a desire for separation to have it granted, beyond
doubt goes far to prevent the growth of any such desire. Once let
the ties which ‘ light as air though strong as iron ’ bind the Colo¬
nies to the mother country, be exchanged for others of leaden weight
and iron strength, and see how we would chafe under them. But
chafing then would be worse than vain.

“We now add to the Empire all the strength we are capable of
furnishing. Nothing more could be extorted from us, no matter
what the device resorted to. We will never consent to pay taxes to
be expended beyond our own borders. If discontent were stirred up,
as it certainly would be by any tightening of the bands whose natural
tendency is to grow slacker, the Empire would be weakened instead
of strengthened by the attempted 1 unification. ’

“We see everything to dread and nothing to gain from Imperial
Federation. If successful, even on the broadest and apparently
most honourable basis, its only effect will be to stir up disaffection
where it does not now exist and where it will afterwards be impos¬
sible to obtain relief.”

Wild and vague as such fears and prejudices must
be pronounced to be, they yet confirm an important
indication of the mischief which may be done by pro¬
ceeding too fast in any development which may ultimately
be acknowledged as beneficial.

It must be remembered that at present Great Britain
pays the lion’s share of all expenses involved in our rela-

“ GO SLOW!"

35

tionship, therefore an alteration of almost any kind, and
in however slight a degree it may be effected, would result
in increased taxation of our “kin beyond the sea.” For
objects clearly useful and subserving their purposes they
will probably be perfectly willing to incur extra expenses,
but their interest in a change, however slight, must first
be made manifest. They have over and over again
proved that they will come to our help in any strait.
They have shown that they will always give large special
donations. But the question is, How can you make it
evident that a permanent subscription all round is neces¬
sary for certain common purposes ?

Local egotism must not be told that it is to abate its
selfishness, but that the narrow interest can be best
served by the wider patriotism. We have “full-blown
specimens” of the eloquent egotist among ourselves.
Sometimes he is benevolent to the Colonies because
he thinks they will give him trade without trouble.
Sometimes he is spiteful to them because he thinks
they will cost more than they are worth. Sometimes
he is masterful to them because he thinks that they
ought to be as he is, and that if they grow to a different
and home-made pattern they are worthless.

There is nothing in politics so unfortunate as the in¬
fluence of politicians whose sympathy is determined by
the acceptance or rejection of some economical formula.
They are like some surgeons who would deny the value
of any treatment unless it were practised in the hospital
they frequent. They are fearful through ignorance, and

36

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

are ignorant because they choose not to hear. They are
un-English because they are incapable of that spirit of
healthy compromise and progress which has made English
politics the glory of freedom, and such men are destitute
of the daring which has made “ wider England.” They
leave out of their closet-concocted calculations the living
heart and generous impulses which they condemn as
“ sentiment,” although these constitute a power to pre¬
serve friendship, nationality, and union. In their short¬
sightedness their aims are narrowed, and they are apt to
alienate those whose children may be, according to our
present action, either the firm friends or the powerful
enemies of our descendants.

Of those who would compel respect for their judg¬
ment, and who would dictate for ever the foreign policy
from the English Imperial headquarters, a distinguished
gentleman, who has held high office on both sides of the
Atlantic, says :

“As a Colonist I may be excused for evincing a deep interest in
this question of the future government of the Empire, because,
manifestly, if no solution be found for the problem of its main¬
tenance, the country of my adoption must certainly ere long be
exposed to all the hazards of early national life, and deprived of
her birthright in the glowing annals of the mother country. I claim
that a British-born subject emigrating to Canada has in no degree
waived or impaired his right to an equal voice with his fellow-
subjects resident in the United Kingdom, in determining what may
or may not be best for the common Empire. I wholly deny the
pretension which seems to be present to most English minds, that
it is for them alone to judge of such questions ; that the interests of
Great Britain and Ireland are only to be considered ; and that the
colonist has no concern beyond the local affairs of the country in

“ GO SLOW!"

37

which he happens to dwell. Far, indeed, above this standard is
the conception of most colonists of their duties and rights. While
their countrymen have remained in the peaceful prosecution of in¬
dustry at home, they have been engaged in the more arduous task
of extending the influence, commerce, and civilization of Great
Britain in Canada, Australia, South Africa, and countless other
possessions of the Crown ; they have been cheered with the con¬
viction that in these several spheres they have been induing the
basis of a mighty Empire to be hereafter their protection and their
pride. And it is with a feeling nearly approaching to resentment
that they observe the prevalence of the idea in the minds of their
fellow-countrymen at home, in dealing with foreign or Colonial
subjects, that the only point to be considered is how it may affect
themselves. Surely the time cannot be remote when the pressure
of over population — failing all other reason — will force Englishmen
to recognize the truth that an Englishman in Australia is as good
and useful a citizen of the British Empire as an ill-paid workman
in Birmingham and Leeds, and that he is entitled to an equal voice
in determining whether Egypt and the Suez Canal, through which
his communication with England is maintained, shall be left to
anarchy, or whether France shall demoralize Oceanica by making
it the cesspool of her crime, vice, and infidelity. But if the
colonists, feeling their growing strength, are becoming somewhat
impatient of the assumed superiority of their fellow-subjects in the
mother country, unquestionably the concession to them of the
entire control of their local affairs has strengthened instead of
weakened their loyalty and pride in the Empire. It may well be
that their very success impels them towards an assumption of more
responsibility, as the price for increased power and consideration.”

The feeling expressed by the above-quoted sentences
is not unnatural, for it has been rumoured that although
proposals were mooted that the French claims to parts
of the Newfoundland shores should be relinquished for
a compensating advantage in the possession by France
of certain islands in the Pacific, none of the Australian
Agents-General were informed that such a matter had

3§

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

entered into the realms of discussion, although it was well
known that Australia takes the keenest interest in every¬
thing affecting the settlement of the archipelagoes of the
Southern seas ; nor was Canada consulted on the sub¬
ject, although the Newfoundland fishery questions are
intimately connected with her own. In all these matters
the same tendency is seen to regard ourselves, because
Ave at present pay most heavily for any shortcomings
or any mistakes, as the sole repository of responsibility,
although the evil of the maldirection of affairs would not
fall solely upon ourselves.

It must not be supposed for one moment that any
want of consideration is intentionally shown by the
Colonial Office to those who may be involved and embar¬
rassed by such proceedings. The Colonial representative
directly interested would, in all likelihood, be consulted,
but none other - and we are apt to forget hoAv nowadays
Ave cannot deal with one without infringing upon the
freedom of the others. It is the system prescribing im¬
perfect consultation, which is in fault.

It may be argued that as no general remonstrance
has come, none may be expected ; but they aat1ao have
held office as Governors knoAV that friction has some¬
times been avoided by the liberal use of persuasion, and
that the feeling expressed in the foregoing utterance of
a gentleman Avho knoAA^s of what he speaks, is one that
is not founded on imagination.

It is the unfounded assumption of a superior knoAV-
ledge, leading to action Avithout full consultation, which •

“ GO SLOJV!"

39

may bring us into danger. It is this which we wish to see
avoided before any mistake occurs that shall disagreeably
enforce attention to the matter. It can hardly be denied
that exigencies may arise, and that misunderstandings
may produce an awkward and strained state of matters,
from imprudent action on the part of the Colonies, or
from carelessness or remissness, or lack of sympathy and
information derived from a system of imperfect consulta¬
tion on the part of the Imperial authorities.

No wonder that any failure in the acquisition of an “all¬
round view ” is regarded with some resentment, although it
must be observed that the refusal to appreciate the motives
of our kinsmen has a charm for an ever lessening party
amongst us, and is repudiated by many who, a few years
ago, were prepared to cast off the ties they now speak of
with toleration. Among those who in England have been
responsible for the conduct of the policy of Cabinets, it
may truly be said that a party repudiating Colonial
responsibilities does not now exist.

In the two extracts given at the commencement of
this chapter wre have typical examples of the natural mis¬
givings aroused by what is novel and unknown, together
with the satisfaction at the position attained in the
ascent in Colonial growth ) and again of the nobler
ambition such progress has awakened, and we under¬
stand what are the feelings aroused by the attitude often
taken by “ Britishers.” The language used enforces the
lesson that for any common good we must make common
sacrifices, and have a thorough mutual comprehension of

4°

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

the necessarily differing wishes of different parts of the
Empire. If we are only to raise the wind that shall
sweep the chords to make vocal dumb desires and aspira¬
tions, we shall work for good. By bringing near to the
minds of the peoples occupying great and important terri¬
tories which have been conquered for civilization under
our flag, the advantages offered by an Imperial union in
affording the largest market and the cheapest system of
effectual defence for trade and home, we may confirm
an alliance whose operation shall be wholly beneficial.

Who shall be able to withstand the will of the hundreds
of millions of English-speaking people when they co¬
operate for peace and for commerce ? The work of
Imperial Federation should be not so much to make
changes as to confirm the position of our colonists where
they are satisfied; to push their aims and commercial
policy where they think that their position may be im¬
proved ; to realize thoroughly ourselves the difference
involved in the fiscal policy to be pursued on their behalf
as compared with that we deem best for ourselves. If
these differences be frankly seen and understood, the first
step in a true union will be gained.

It is not a matter of surprise that hesitation should be
discernible when the question is raised of increased arma¬
ments. Many of us at home groan at the incessant wars
provoked by our far-stretching trade. But we recognize
the obligation because we have experienced the value of
thrusting our hands into the markets of the world when¬
ever situated and wherever the genius of our merchants

“ GO SLOW!"

4i

has struck a vein of gold. From our insular position on
the ocean highway between America and the European
territories, we have derived a geographical advantage
which we have used to the full. We have gradually
absorbed much of the carrying trade of the world, and
possess far more shipping than any other nation, while
Canada flying the same flag comes fourth on the list of
shipowning nations.

We have been taught to recognize the necessity of
large armaments to protect this expanded commerce.
On the other hand, the new English-speaking peoples
have been accustomed to trust to our navy for the pro¬
tection of any commerce they may have at sea, and have
been in no such dread of war by land as to accustom
them, as Continental Europeans are accustomed, to large
forces to guard against invasion by land. They have also
a paramount and pressing demand for their money in de¬
veloping the great public works which every part of their
vast territories are constantly requiring. Their popu¬
lations, settling and increasing around centres distant from
each other must have communication by rail, and millions
upon millions are spent by Colonial Governments on
the making of the railroads designed for this purpose.

The drain upon their treasuries for these purposes is
unlike anything we have ever known in England. Govern¬
ment must more or less be at the back of the companies
undertaking such works, if they can be undertaken by
companies at all, and are not burdens to be directly con¬
structed, managed, and paid for by the State. Crown

42

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

lands must be granted, subsidies and guarantees given, if
the companies find the work too heavy, and an almost
endless list of claims has to be met in the deepening of
rivers, the construction of harbours, the extension of
roads and telegraphs, and in the support of the thousand
and one items of cost incidental to Government action
where population is too poor and too scant to carry out
what may, in older countries, be done by private enterprise.

No wonder then that not only “ bloated armaments ”
but all payments for military preparations are looked
at askance. The mere wish that no trouble shall arise is
too often assumed to be a guarantee against any war, and
where there is little risk, the temptation is always to turn
to the nearest want demanding money. The furniture
must be got before the insurance on it against fire is paid.
Need the money be paid at all? Will not care to avoid
fire make such an outlay unnecessary ? There is more
excuse for the negligence shown by such a frame of mind,
and for the want of proper military precautions, than we
are apt to allow. “ Fuss and Feathers ” is with the opti¬
mist party the phrase for military array, and the minister
who has to see that the militia is efficient and prepared
for defence is often dubbed “ The minister for militia and
expense.”

Such grumblings are perhaps only the inevitable con¬
comitants of the warlike organization which the majority
of Colonial Parliaments are perfectly ready to supply,
and they are mentioned not to discourage the work of
general Imperial organization, which must indeed be
undertaken, but only to enforce the moral “ go slow.”

CHAPTER IV.

OLD POLICY AND NEW DEPARTURES.

In a consideration of what kind of union is possible,
we have no precedents which may help us. Our position
is one wholly unexampled in all history. In no case in
ancient or modern times has a people thrown off kindred
communities endowing them after a time with full powers
of self-government, allowing them to tax themselves and
the products of the mother country as they choose, and to
inaugurate a fiscal policy wholly their own. The Colonies
of old days were always tributary provinces. The
tribute we acquire is like a marriage dower that comes
with love, exacted by no legislation, and enforced by no
power. It is, nevertheless, a tribute of immense value,
for coming as it does from the natural desire of our
kindred to favour the mother country, it pays us more
than could be wrung by ancient or modern states from
subject lands held under military domination.

If we look back for a century and consider the
language held to the thirteen colonies of America, and
contrast this with the attitude we assume towards those
who have remained within the pale of the Empire, we

44

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

shall see how radical is the alteration effected by time
and experience. It was because we undertook the chief
expense of war on the American continent that we
chose to assume the right to levy taxes, without the
expressed consent of the people taxed. Was it not done
for their good, and to carry on their defence ? Could a
nation allow those whom it had planted, and fostered,
and protected, and for whom it was now fighting, to
dictate when and where and how the necessary con¬
tributions should be given ?

It was not the idea that regarded the Colonies as so
many milch cows for the Imperial Treasury which made
George III. and Lord North obstinate in levying taxes,
but it was the mistaken notion that England alone had
the right to judge of what was best for the Empire.
The result was civil war — revolution as it was called —
and the independence of the thirteen colonies, after a
conflict waged on the part of the king under the idea
that he could not allow the Empire committed to his
charge by the Almighty to be broken into pieces by
secession. The secession was successful, and its success
was hailed as the triumph of right by many an English
statesman and patriot. And from the day of that
success the old Colonial policy pursued by the mother
country towards her kith and kin died and was buried
out of sight.

The loyalists of the Revolutionary War fled northward
and founded the English-Canadian provinces, and the
influence of the great struggle made England’s policy a

OLD POLICY AND NEW DEPARTURES.

45

doubtful one, for her governors were not apt to encourage
much liberty, and loyalty was still held to mean a certain
subservience to the ideas dominant in the British Cabinet.

Time passed, and Australia began to attract emigration,
and then came in Canada an uprising on the part of the
French against the too long deferred concession of full
self-government. As their ancestors’ Norman cousins
under King John declared for greater freedom, so the
men under Papineau demanded autonomy. A boy who
served gallantly in the insurrection became afterwards
Sir George Cartier, loyal amongst the loyal, and a leader
in Canadian statesmanship.

Again came a change and, with Lord Durham’s visit,
the inauguration of a better rule. Thenceforward a new
era began, whose dominating principle became the grant
of responsible government and liberty, not as late, but as
soon as it could be given. It was to be given whenever
a colony could raise enough revenue to pay its civil ser¬
vants. Wider powers were to accompany widening de¬
velopment. But still the influence of “ Home ” was to
be used for the maintenance of what may be called a
special commercial religion — for such “ Free Trade” had
become in the eyes of the English.

The Colonies found that the political object of the
greatest importance in the opinion of the party which was
steadily acquiring more and more power was “ to relieve
industry and commerce from the shackles with which
they had been loaded by measures adopted for their ad¬
vancement under the erroneous theory of ‘ Protection.’ ”

46

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

It was observed that this idea was a revolution in an
established system of policy. “ For more than two
centuries,” wrote Lord Grey, “the great object of all
European nations in seeking to obtain possession of
colonies was the gain supposed to accrue from the
monopoly of their commerce, which it was the practice
for the parent state to maintain, while, on the other hand,
it gave to their produce a preference in its own markets.
This policy began to be relaxed immediately after the
American Revolution (of which calamity it was in truth
the chief cause) ; but although the views on which it is
founded had been considerably modified, the principle
of placing the trade with the Colonies on a different
footing from that with other countries had been main¬
tained up to the year 1846, and was generally regarded
as one of unquestionable propriety and wisdom.”

He remarks that in the tariff of 1842 the principle of
reciprocal advantages being confined to our trade with
Colonies was adhered to, and that the circumstance
showed “ how strong was the hold on men’s minds of the
old opinions respecting the Colonial trade, and how great
was the shock given to these opinions when the policy
of placing our trade with the Colonies on the same footing
as that with foreign countries was first systematically
adopted in Sir Robert Peel’s Act for the Repeal of the
former Corn Law.” This was done, be it observed, not
because the Colonies had adopted Free Trade, but because
we had done so.

It is the desire of many among the colonists to-day to •

OLD POLICY AND NEW DEPARTURES. 47

revive the practice familiar to politicians before 1842, and
to have reciprocal advantages given to the trade of the
Empire with differential duties levied against foreigners.
It is this hope which affords a line of action for a
numerous body of Colonial friends of Imperial Federation.
Probably their hope of converting England to the policy
of re-enacting differential duties is as vain as the hope a
party in England cherish of converting the Colonies to
the doctrines of the good to be derived from a universal
application of the principles of Free Trade. Each idea may
find its exponent under the same flag, and prosper with
different systems' under an alliance giving scope to both.

There is no reason why one commercial treaty with the
foreigner should not embrace in its provisions different
arrangements for different parts of the Empire. If we
have discarded “ differential duties/' it is our duty to re¬
cognize the difference in the commercial views of England
and her Colonies ; and to push the interests of each along
the line of road each has chosen. There will be no
mutual hurt given so long as mutual assistance is secured.

The fear that when once direction of policy was yielded
by the mother country the connection with the Colonies
would not be worth retaining has vanished, with the ex¬
perience that they prefer to take British goods rather than
others, thus giving voluntarily that which could not be
exacted by force.

Lord Grey’s remarks on the degree of control to be
exercised over the local authorities show what was con¬
sidered requisite thirty years ago.

48

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

“The Secretary of State,” he said, “as the organ of
the Home Government, ought to exercise control very
much as the Governor is invested with a greater or less
amount of power. In a colony like Canada, where
representative institutions have attained their full develop¬
ment, or the Governor is aided in his administrative
duties by Ministers who are required to possess the con¬
fidence of the Legislature, exceedingly little interference
on the part of the Government at home seems to be
required. In Colonies where this system of government
is in successful operation, the Home Government should
attempt little (except in those rare cases where Imperial
interests or the honour of the Crown are affected by
local measures or proceedings) beyond advising the
Colonial authorities, and checking, so as to give an
opportunity for further reflection, any ill-considered or
hasty measures they may be inclined to adopt. Practic¬
ally the influence which can thus be exercised through a
judicious Governor is very considerable, and may be of
great service to the Colonies. In the strife of parties
which prevails in all free governments, the existence of
an impartial authority serves to check the too great vio¬
lence with which political contests are sometimes carried
on, and the experience and position of a Minister of the
Crown in this country enables him frequently to offer
useful advice to a Colonial Legislature. . . . While the
authority of the Crown, of which the Secretary of State
is the depositary, should be used in all cases with great
caution, and in Colonies possessing representative insti-

49

OLD POLICY AND NEW DEPARTURES .

tutions with extreme forbearance, I cannot concur with
those who would prohibit all interference on the part
of the Home Government in the internal affairs of the
Colonies.”

The spirit which dictated this utterance in 1853 has
been influential ever since, and the powers allowed to the
Secretary of State have been judiciously exercised, while
the Governors have very rarely withheld the assent of
the Crown to Bills of any importance. Yet in the in¬
structions issued to Governors on their appointment,
certain classes of measures which might be antagonistic
to Imperial interests were mentioned as to be reserved
for the approval of the Home authorities.

In Canada, during the Governor-Generalship of Lord
Dufferin, Mr. Blake and Mr. Mackenzie drew attention
to the instructions on the subject of reservation and
disallowance of Bills, and the result was that in the in¬
structions issued to Lord Dufferin’s successor, all men¬
tion of any special measures to be reserved was withdrawn,
and the Governor-General was left free to use his own
discretion on all matters where Imperial interests might
be affected by Canadian legislation.

This was a notable circumstance, and it was to be
followed by a step taken by the Canadian Government,
which brought into still stronger relief the independence
of which they had become possessed.

The “Reform party,” as it called itself, had been
victorious at the polls in 1873 in Canada in consequence
of the disclosures which were made with reference to the

5

5°

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

alleged dealings of the Government of the day in the con¬
duct of the great enterprise they wished to undertake in
constructing a railway to the Pacific. Mr. Mackenzie
came into power for five years, and his Government fell
only in 1878. During the five years of his tenure of
office, the Free Trade arguments which had obtained
mastery in Great Britain had so far exerted their power
in British North America that the tariff rate was lowered
to the farthest point compatible with the ingathering of a
revenue sufficient to meet the bare requirements of the
State. No direct taxes have ever been imposed by the
Federal Government since the union of the Canadian
provinces in the year 1867, such forms of impost being
wholly unknown to the people, except in so far as
municipal taxation and local assessment may be held to
represent them. The Liberal, like the Conservative
Government, proposed no direct Federal taxation.

Unfortunately for the party holding the reins of power,
the five years were very unfortunate, in that trade through¬
out the whole of the American continent suffered during
that period much depression. The Conservative leaders,
working upon this misfortune, declared for a higher rate
of tariff, exonerating themselves from any suspicion of
disloyalty or unfriendliness to England by saying that they
intended rather to foster the import of her goods as com¬
pared with those received from the United States. The
country had not only become impatient of depression, but
was possessed of a people already sufficiently numerous
to cherish an ambition which is visible among all our rising

OLD roue V AND NE IV DEPAR TURES . 5 1

Anglo-Saxon nationalities, viz,, to have their national life
represented by the fosterage of various forms of native
industry. “ Why should we be only hewers of wood and
drawers of water for other countries? Why should we
not be able to manufacture goods, not only for ourselves,
but for them also, by creating a market to which our and
their merchants shall come ? Why should we not keep
our people at home by giving them work and enabling
them to earn money by which to procure the necessaries,
or even luxuries, which they are under present circum¬
stances unable to buy because they lack the means ?
Why should not our towns rival with their manufactures
those trade centres and rapidly increasing and progres¬
sive urban populations scattered in such numbers through
every state belonging to the great neighbouring Union ?
They provide for themselves, and they have enough and to
spare for others. We are certain, as our population extends
over a vast and rich country hitherto untouched, to be able
to raise so much wheat that the price of bread shall always
be cheap. At the present time the men capable of
creating without difficulty more agricultural and indus¬
trial produce are enticed away over our borders by the
successful American employers, who, through the benefit
of protection, are able to employ them at far higher
wages than they can earn with us.”

Moreover, they declared that, so perfect were the associ¬
ations or “Rings” composed of American manufacturers,
it was within the power of the Americans to “ slaughter ”
any similar establishment on the north of the International

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

52

boundary line. This phrase must be explained, for it is
or may be, incomprehensible to an English ear. It meant
that as soon as any factory was built and had begun to
supply the Canadian market with its goods, Canada s acute
neighbours to the south combined to offer any similar goods
made by themselves at a less price than that hitherto
asked by any firm. The lowering of the price rendered
the Canadian manufacturer’s calculations of profit futile,
and he had to close his business, being unable to supply
the public so cheaply. As soon as the result desired by
the American “Ring” in the closing of their northern
rival’s establishment had been effected, the Association
raised the price of their articles to the former level.

Even Great Britain, it was pointed out, did not com¬
mence Free Trade until her manufactures were estab¬
lished. It is true, it was argued, that the United States
form a large portion of the world ; but Canada also is so
large, and the natural increase among the people is so
great, that she may fairly hope to make proportionately
good progress. A larger revenue can easily be procured
without inflicting hardship, and without appreciably rais¬
ing taxation. She will be enabled to push such great works
as the railway to the Pacific ; and will possess the means
for deepening the great water-ways like the St. Lawrence.

The whole question was most ably debated by the press
of both sides, John Stuart Mill’s and Bastiat’s arguments
being as well known through its agency to every voter
throughout the land as are the adventures of Robinson
Crusoe to the English schoolboy.

OLD POLICY AND NEW DEPARTURES .

S3

The result of the general election was a surprise even
to the best friends of Sir John Macdonald and his party.
It was true that they were men of exceptional popularity,
and had proved their statesmanship by the manner in
which, in conjunction with English statesmen, they had
arranged difficult details, and conquered local prejudices
which had stood in the way of a federation of the
British provinces. Great as was the popularity and
renown of Sir John, few expected that the result of the
election would be a total rout of the (comparatively) Free
Trade Reform party. The field of battle was strewn not
only with their rank and file, but with the bodies of some
of their most prominent leaders.

The effect of the transfer of office which followed
this event was visible in the next session of Parliament,
when a tariff averaging 30 per cent., as compared with the
previously imposed 17}^ per cent., was placed upon all
imported goods, while an arrangement was made which
favoured, in the classification of taxation, British as
against American manufactures.

The British Government said not a word. Not a single
despatch was written to the Governor-General, as repre¬
senting the Imperial power, in contravention of the pro¬
posals of the Canadian Government. This was a most
emphatic proof that the policy originally proposed by
Lord Durham, pursued by Lord Elgin, and reaffirmed
by subsequent Governors, had obtained full effect, and
that henceforward Canada would be left in absolute free¬
dom to do as she thought best for herself.

54

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

It is doubtful if more than a mild remonstrance would
have been addressed to the Canadian Government even
if they had proposed to have differential duties acting
adversely to the traders of Birmingham, Manchester, and
London, and favouring those of New York and Chicago.
It was felt that it was sufficient to rely upon the good
sense which tells the Colonies that any such step would
materially decrease that sentiment, and kinship in feeling,
that inborn and almost ineradicable friendship, which
binds together those living under the Union Jack.

Great Britain knows well enough that in almost every
conceivable circumstance colonists would take far more
of her merchandize than would the foreigner ; and the
colonist on his part knows full well that if he proceeded
too far, and alienated the valuable affection borne towards
him, he would, in having to shift for himself, be obliged
to maintain an expensive diplomatic service, and burden
himself with vastly increasing costs in standing arma¬
ments both on land and sea. Even such exertions
could not save him from the fate of those who have
stronger neighbours desirous to extend their own terri¬
tories. It would not be difficult for the United States to
find pretexts by which Canada could be persuaded or
forced to give up her cherished independence, at present
so fully secured to her under the protection of the
Empire.

But with a separate fiscal system, including nearly five
million of people in its zone, came a wish that the commer¬
cial policy arising from it should be represented abroad by

OLD POLICY AND NEW DEPARTURES. 55

those best acquainted with the opinion of the Govern¬
ment which was responsible for it. The tendency had
been shown as long ago as 1854, when Lord Elgin as
Canadian Governor, quite as much as in his capacity of
British official, went to Washington to negotiate the
Reciprocity Treaty then concluded with Great Britain.
Sir John Macdonald, as Canadian representative, acted
as one of the Commissioners sent to Washington at the
time of the transactions which ended in the payment of
damages by England for the depredations committed on
the American commerce by the Alabama, a Confederate
cruiser fitted out in an English port. He had also been
associated with English statesmen in the conclusion of
other bargains with the States.

When he assumed office in 1878, he soon began to
find that he wanted openings for foreign trade with
France, Spain, and the American Republic, and em¬
ployed Sir Alexander Galt, a distinguished Canadian
statesman and financier, to communicate his views to
British Ministers. It became desirable that at the Im¬
perial head-quarters a man of standing and high official
position should be appointed Resident Minister. It did
not matter what the title chosen for him should be, so
long as in fact he was accepted as the Canadian Envoy.
This appointment was not meant as an indication that
Canada wished to institute a diplomatic service, but that
she desired that the Imperial diplomatic service should
have incorporated in it, for Canadian purposes, a Canadian
Minister.

56

IMPERIAL FED ERA PI ON.

The Governor-General, although serving as a standing
channel of communication between the two Governments,
could not be at Ottawa and in London at the same time ;
and in any matter requiring verbal explanation and full
knowledge of the intentions and position of the Cabinet
at Ottawa, it became evident that it would be most useful
for the people dwelling on both sides of the Atlantic to
have a Canadian resident in London, who could at all
times, for the purpose of explanation and discussion, hold
personal conference with the Colonial Secretary of State.
Should a new policy enable the Canadians to make trade
bargains with any foreigners, the Governor-General could
not be employed to conduct them. He had to remain
at the capital, and could not, except by despatches,
indicate to the Foreign Secretary on rvhat lines his
Government thought it desirable to proceed, while verbal
explanation and exposition would prevent delay.

The proposal to appoint such an officer was a new
one, and it may well be imagined that among some of
those accustomed to see everything transacted by Im¬
perial officers without Colonial assistance, the innovation
was looked upon as portentous of coming separation.
Fortunately they who were at the head of affairs took
another view. They believed that what had been found
essential for all States nominally independent, rvas neces¬
sary for Canada with her real commercial independence.

The title of High Commissioner wras at once given to
Sir Alexander Galt, and he proceeded to London, where
he was received with that honour which comes only

OLD POLICY AND NEW DEPARTURES.

57

from friendship and respect. He was placed in com¬
munication with foreign courts, with whose ministers he
commenced negotiations as the coadjutor of the British
ambassador. Working with the assistance, co-operation,
and support of the Imperial Minister, he was unfettered
in his manner of conducting the business on which his
country had sent him. There were no stipulations made
on the part of the British officials. The (Canadian
Government, as a matter of course, and as necessary to
the success of their wishes, placed before the Governor-
General the instructions under which the envoy of his
Government was acting, and he was made cognisant of
all public despatches to Sir Alexander Galt as well as
of those received from him. The fullest confidence was
shown on both sides, for it was felt that although Canada’s
attitude towards the mother country was now one of alli¬
ance rather than of allegiance, that alliance was necessary,
and would remain as necessary as before. Canada had
only to express a desire for such a personal representation
in London to have her wishes granted. It was wise to
grant them.

If the interests of a Federal Union such as the
Northern Dominion has now become had been left
wholly in the hands of British officials, any blame
attaching to failure to secure those interests would
always rest on England. On the other hand, once
England receives a minister representing a Colony, and
recognizes that his country’s interests are committed into
his hand, and supports them by her influence with

58

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

foreigners, failure of any kind is visited by the Colony on
its envoy, and not upon England. English failures in old
days to secure what Canada wanted have been frequent
and conspicuous enough. Witness the surrender of the
frontier of the State of Maine, and the loss of the
magnificent provinces of Oregon and Washington ter¬
ritory on the Pacific Ocean, through the too great
complaisance of British plenipotentiaries. Such faults
will not again be laid to the door of Britain if she
associates with her diplomatic agents the agent of the
Colony, and lets him see how she supports his conten¬
tions, and works with him and through him to further
the desires of his Government.

The nomination of Sir A. Galt as High Commis¬
sioner was a new departure in the history of our Empire.
It was the first step taken to constitute an Imperial
machinery for negotiating all propositions affecting the
Colonies — a machinery which must ultimately be
composed, not only of Imperial diplomatists, but of
men who represent the views of the respective Colo¬
nial Cabinets. Without their presence and counsel
it is impossible that “Downing Street’’ can be fully
informed as to the actual conditions and tendencies of
politics in “the Dependencies,” or be fully aware of the
best means of helping them. It is only by comparing
notes that this can be done. The mother country must
be in a position fully to understand the circumstances
that lead to the adoption of any given line of policy
advocated by any of her children, and the fuller the

OLD POLICY AND NEW DEPARTURES.

59

comprehension the more likely is sympathy to be en¬
gendered and an agreement in main outlines preserved ;
the agreement being none the less cordial because the
parties to it agree to differ on details.

Sir Charles Tupper, who succeeded Sir A. Galt in the
important post created under the “new departure ”, in
policy, lately spoke thus of the manner in which he
viewed the question of Federation, and recognized the
cordial spirit evinced in regard to his own position.

* 1 1 can only say that I would be doing wrong if on an occasion
like this — referring as I do with great satisfaction to the views of
the right honourable gentleman ennunciated with regard to the
federation of the Empire — I did not take this opportunity of saying
that I am entirely with him in the desire that the mother country
and the Colonies may be bound more indissolubly together than at
present. I believe this matter is worthy the attention of our states¬
men to devise means to draw the bonds still closer, and to render
indissoluble for all the tie which now unites us. You misunderstand
me if you suppose that my experience of this country has forced this
conviction upon me. I would be an ingrate indeed if I did not
take this opportunity of saying that since I have had the honour of
holding the position of representative of Canada in London I have
met with most cordial sympathy and co-operation from aH members
of Her Majesty’s Government — from Lord Derby, from the Hon.
Mr. Ashley, and from Sir Robert Herbert ; and the assistant secre¬
taries in the department have shown great anxiety on every occasion
to give me aid, assistance, and co-operation, and to give a most
patient attention to every Canadian interest presented for their con¬
sideration. I will say more ; for they have been good enough to
place me in communication, in connection with the foreign trade of
Canada, with the Foreign Office, and I have met from Lord Gran¬
ville, and from Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, from Mr. Kennedy, and
from other gentlemen connected with the Foreign Office, the same
hearty and generous responses to every proposal I have felt it my
duty to submit. I may go further and say that, so far as our foreign

6o

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

commerce is concerned, Lord Derby and Lord Granville at once, in
the most generous spirit, responded to the desire of Canada that her
representative should be charged, as plenipotentiary, with the duty
and responsibility of negotiating treaties in regard to foreign powers,
and they did me the higher honour of at once placing me on equal
terms with the distinguished gentleman who sits here Sir Robert
Morier — in the negotiation of a treaty with Spain. You will at once
see that nothing has been wanting on the part of Her Majesty s
Government to give me aid and co-operation. It is said, ‘ But why
not seek independence for yourselves?' Gentlemen, I say at once
that I regard the proposal for independence as the most fatal delu¬
sion — so far as Canada is concerned — that could be presented for our
consideration. At this moment, living under the aegis of this great
Empire, we possess an amount of power and influence which Canada
could not possibly obtain otherwise. I am not speaking mere senti¬
ment ; but I know, after spending twenty-nine years of my life con¬
secutively in the Parliament of my own country — and I am proud to
be able to say it— that no man would stand the slightest chance of
securing election in any one of the Canadian constituencies — from
Prince Edward Island to British Columbia — were he to advocate the
disintegration of the Empire.”

CHAPTER V.

WHAT AMOUNT OF FEDERATION NOW EXISTS?

“ What more do we want? We have practical Federation,”
has lately been said. There are some constitutional ties
besides those of sentiment and affection, and it is as well
to see what these are. It will be understood that the
great Colonies only are to be considered in this section,
as throughout this pamphlet, for it is not material to the
subject to review the varied scale of directness of the
Imperial authority exercised over the smaller Colonies.
Canada is the country most worth considering in this
regard, for she is ahead of all others in the constitutional
development of the Colonial connection. What she is
to-day, Australia may soon become, when with con¬
federation she can be considered as one Federal Power,
and has, as such, written her name upon the list of the
nations.

The legal ties now retained by England with her
Colonies are few. First, there is the right of the Crown
to nominate the Governors, who for a term of five or six
years play the part of a constitutional sovereign among
the people to whom they are sent, and by whom they are
invariably loyally received, and treated with much con-

62

IMPERIAL FEDERATION .

sideration and respect. There have been cases in which
the conduct of a Governor has drawn upon himself the
anger of one of the parties of his State owing to a negli¬
gence of, or a designed departure from, that impartiality
which is exacted from such an officer. Very rarely dur¬
ing the last twenty years have such difficulties arisen. It
has been observed that in general it has been more easy
for a Governor to remain aloof from party contentions in
the larger Colonies, where constitutional practices have
been in full operation, than in the smaller communities,
where the very smallness of the State has embittered
controversy, and local asperities have not been calmed
by the presence in the Chambers of members from places
distant from the spots affected by the contention. In the
larger communities, also, the extent to which the legal
and moral influence of the parent land can be exercised
has been more defined by usage and obvious considera¬
tions of practicability than in more contracted com¬
munities. The more a Governor has resisted the interested
efforts of any one party to enlist him on their side, and
the more strictly he has kept to the rule to give his con¬
fidence to the Ministry having the majority in the repre¬
sentative chamber, the greater has been the influence
ahd popularity he has acquired.

Allusion has been made to the very rare cases in which
laws passed by the Colonies have been reserved by
Governors for the Imperial assent. It is always within
the power of a Governor so to reserve any measure he
may think detrimental to the connection between

PRESENT FEDERA TION 63

England and the Colony, or harmful to the constitution :
and should such cases arise, he would probably find
himself supported in his action by a majority in the
Colony. If he can reserve measures with the full assent
of his own Ministry, the situation becomes clear of all
doubt. Practical good sense rather than legal forms
must govern such cases.

It is almost inconceivable that any local assembly
or ministry should insist on a measure which would
imperil the connection with Britain, unless indeed the
Colony considered itself strong enough against foreign
foes, and valued the connection with England so little as
to declare for absolute independence. On the other
hand, the veto by the Crown would never be exercised
unless it were with the good-will of the majority in the
self-governed Colony, for the Home Government would
not desire to run the risk of inducing a declaration of
secession from the Empire. In little Colonies, on small
as well as on important questions, the procedure might be
different, but all such matters must be settled much more
by the Imperial and local authorities on their estimate
of what is best at the time, than on any theoretical code
of laws and regulations. It is notable, that even when
Governors met with much opposition and ill-will, as, for
example, Lord Metcalfe, who was unpopular because auto¬
cratic, and Lord Elgin, who was disliked for a brief period
for the opposite reason, namely, because he would not
accept any advice but that of his Ministers, the unpopu¬
larity brought no demand for the abrogation of the office,

IMPERIAL FEDERATION,

but only led to an outcry for the dismissal of the indi¬
vidual. Yet the Governors are paid from the local and
not from the Home treasury, and the absence of any
general wish that they shall be elected is a proof of the
value attached to the connecting link with the mother
country afforded by their office.

With regard to the respect shown to the Governors,
it is right that it should be paid to the office rather
than to the man, although they who desire the over¬
throw of the Imperial connection are fond of making
cheap fun of the position held by such an officer, and of
representing it as analogous to that of a figure-head on
a ship. If a figure-head could subserve the purposes of
use as well as of show, and could get down from its perch
and walk about the decks and give good advice to the
crew, not only when the vessel is taken aback and in
danger from violent winds, but could also often foretell
the weather conditions better than the captain himself,
because possessed of meteorological knowledge inacces¬
sible to him, the “figure-head” analogy would be more com¬
plete. The influence with his Cabinet will vary with the
Governor’s individual character, but the influence of
the office as representative of the powerful and loving
mother land depends very little on personality.

The extent to which a Governor can make himself of
use in oiling the wheels and preventing friction in the
Colony’s domestic affairs does largely depend on himself.
The amount of power he wields as directing the relations
between the Colony and the mother land must necessarily

s

PRESENT FEDERA TION. (5

depend more on the condition of public affairs and the
temper of the two peoples than on him, and is necessarily
large because he is the channel of communication of the
wishes of the majority. Yet a Colony, if in possession of
full self-government, as all our larger “settlements” are,
will only yield to the wishes of the majority over-sea if
its own interests are not traversed.

It has absolute freedom, and it lies with its Ministers to
strain that freedom, if they choose to do so, to the point
of separation from the mother country. Such a snapping
of the love-ties would probably end, not in the enjoyment
of separate freedom, but in enforced annexation to some
stronger power. This they know, and the Anglo-Saxon
good sense, v hich prevents the rush to dangerous logical
conclusions, and betakes itself to reasonable compromise
as the surest way of obtaining large results, tends to
enhance the respect for the Governor’s office, for it is to
that office they must look as the oracle of the force which
is their surest ally and the mainstay of their own freedom.

Words spoken by Sir John Macdonald, the Canadian
Prime Minister, in February, 18851, 31 Montreal, are worth
repeating : “ We Want no independence in this country,
except the independence we have at this moment. What
country in the world is more independent than we are ?
We have perfect independence, we have an Imperial
Government that casts on ourselves the responsibilities as
well as the privileges of self-government. We may govern
ourselves as we please , we may misgovern ourselves as
we please. We put a tax on the industries of our fellow*

6

66

IMPERIAL FEDERA TlOtf.

subjects in England, Ireland, and Scotland. If we are
attacked, if our shores are assailed, the mighty powers of
England by land and sea are used in our defence.” This
is the independence and freedom guaranteed by union
with the Parent State which is represented by the Gover¬
nor. Hence the respect for his office.

The reservation by the Governor of local acts is a
mark of the connection maintained through him. He
used to be specially enjoined to reserve certain measures
for Home approval, but disallowance has not been
known since the union under one Federal Executive and
Parliament in Canada, and it has been very sparingly
exercised in the case of other Colonies.

It is as a sign to the outer world that union exists that
the power of nomination to governorships should be de¬
sired by the mother country. Some critics in the Colo¬
nies believe that the wish exists for the sake of the
patronage. Fortunately English politics have not sunk so
low that the maxim of “the spoils to the victors” is used for
preferment of partizans to the greatest offices which are at
the disposal of the Crown, and are connected with Imperial
affairs. When this becomes the case, it will be time for
the Colonies to insist on a voice in the nomination, how¬
ever limited may be the power they allow to the Governor,

But that such posts are not mere rewards for party
service may be proved from the instance of Lord Mayo,
who was appointed during the last days of a Tory Govern¬
ment, and the cry among some “ Liberal ” partizans for
his recall was not listened to for a moment by the Liberal

PRESENT EE PER A TJ ON.

67

Government, who, on the contrary, supported him
loyally. Lord Beaconsfield, again, in 1878, offered the
Governor-Generalship of Canada to a man in the ranks
of the Liberal Party.

Even in earlier times, the nomination was not valued
for the sake of patronage. “ Such patronage,” as it has
been well said,1 “ can only be looked upon as a source of
difficulty and anxiety. The welfare of every Colony,
and the alternative of success or failure in administering
its affairs, are so mainly dependent upon the choice of
a Governor, that it is incredible that any Secretary of
State, even if he were insensible to all higher motives
than a regard for his own interest and reputation, would
willingly be guided in his selection by any consideration
except that of the qualifications of the individual pre¬
ferred. As the importance of the interests committed to
the charge of any individual appointed Governor in a
great Colony increases, these motives are brought more
and more into play, for the failure of a nominee reacts
on the Government which has nominated him.”

Should any contrary motives be shown, it is always in
the power of the Colony, which pays the salary of the
Governor, to make its veto on any bad nomination
effectual.

As an Imperial officer, who is at the same time the
head of the Colonial State, the Governor’s hand should
be felt in public affairs. He must act through a Ministry
responsible to the country, but this need not make his

1 Lord Grey.

68

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

connection with important events less real. He is in¬
timately acquainted with the views of the authorities at
Home, who represent the people upon whom falls so
much of the expense of protecting the younger country,
and on whom she must rely for the effectual sup¬
port of her interests. The Governor should also in his
person be fit to embody worthily that idea which calls
the English Sovereign “ the fountain of honour.” Ele
represents the stability, the authority, the dignity derived
from long centuries of Empire. He should be able to
bring to bear upon the tendency of party conflicts, as well
as on the general drift of the Colonies’ policy, the influ¬
ence derived from his position as an impartial friend,
having experience won in other and more critical fields
of action. He is the representative of the mother
country possessing the model constitution after which
the new Free State intends to shape itself. He is the sign
of the continuity of national life which the Colony is
destined to illustrate and expand.

A singular, and by no means fortunate, survival of
the individual power formerly confided to the Gover¬
nor is visible in the responsibility that still personally
attaches to him as an Imperial officer in ordering the
arrest of any vessel which may be fitting out for a pira¬
tical expedition, or for a raid on the territory of a
belligerent with whom Britain is at peace. This legal
power has been rather overlooked than maintained with
design, for no machinery remains in the Governor’s
hands for carrying it out where a responsible Govern-

PRESENT FEDERATION.

69

ment exists. The Governor would, where his Ministry-
refused to carry out his wishes, have no one to obey him
save the officers of his personal staff, who could hardly
be expected to do marine or other police duty.

1 he assumption that the Governor must act individu¬
ally as an Imperial officer is a curious anomaly in these
days, and is a vestige of his former powers when he was
in truth as well as in name Commander-in-chief and
Admiral ; and the Admiralty or Marine Courts, taking
cognizance of occurrences affecting ocean navigation,
were more directly under his charge.

All is changed now, for the Colonies pay the judges
of the Admiralty Courts, and there is not a man placed
unreservedly under the personal command of the Go¬
vernor. Yet because the Imperial Treasury has hitherto
consented to defray the costs resulting from damages for
illegal detention of vessels against which any accusation
leading to their arrest has failed, the Governor is held
responsible. If a new Alabama is suspected as fitting
out in a Canadian port, the Governor-General would be
supposed to be responsible for her arrest or escape. If
she were arrested, and an Admiralty Court in Canada
found her guiltless of evil intention, the costs of the
damages for detention payable to her owners would be
paid by England, although it might be proved that the
mistake in considering her guilty and ordering her arrest
was made on the representation of the Canadian
Ministry.

There is much to be said for ensuring that arrest shall

7o

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

immediately follow suspicion in cases where such ter¬
rible harm may arise from neglect. Hesitation to arrest
may arise from fear on the part of the Colonial autho
rities of burdening their Treasury if they are cast in
damages in the “ Admiralty ” Courts. But if the argu¬
ment for the retention of the present responsibility in
the Governors counterbalance the arguments for asking
the Colony to pay some portion of the damage money
claimed on account of its participation in the arrest,
the Governor should be furnished with men bound to
obey his individual orders, so that the arrest may be
instantaneously effected without the necessity of con¬
sultation with the Colonial Ministry. As this would be
very difficult, or almost impossible, it would seem best
that the Colony should be responsible through its Min¬
istry, and that no individual responsibility attach to the
Governor, whose position, unless he gets the Colonial
Ministry to order men to effect the arrest, is a helpless
one. The liability to pay half or some proportion of the
costs of a mistaken arrest would not influence wrongly
any Colonial Ministry, but would ensure care in the
recommendation of such arrest.

The Colonies are fully as much interested as is the
mother country in the observation of the international
laws relating to neutrals, for they would have to pay in
warlike preparations for any war arising out of their
negligence in allowing arms, ammunition, or a vessel, to
be conveyed to a belligerent. They would not abate
their vigilance for the small evil of being cast in partial

PRESENT FEDERATION.

1 1

damages for mistaken arrests, for over-suspicion may
bring small charges, while any laxity may cost them
millions.

The only true course is to make each and every act
performed by a Governor-General in Canada an act for
which his Ministers are responsible, and to rely on the
sense of the Colonial public to punish their government if
they be in the wrong. Imperial interests are there best
guarded by Colonial responsibility. As in the other
Colonies the conditions approach those in force in
Canada, the same rule must be applied. The greater the
opportunity to apply it, the safer will the interests of all
concerned become, and the firmer the Imperial union.

Another and highly valued connection is zealously
maintained by the Colonies, in the power of appeal to
the British Privy Council from the decision of their own
Courts. Appeals are not made in criminal cases, for they
are decided by appeal to the Minister of Justice, but for
all civil suits an appeal from the decisions of the Supreme
Court at Ottawa lies to the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council, whose judgment sometimes reverses that of
the Canadian courts both provincial and “supreme,” and
is accepted as the ultimate and abiding settlement of the
question. To a stranger it is curious to observe how the
best lawyers, and the most patriotic among the Canadians,
are, for the present, at all events, anxious to keep this appeal
to the tribunal at Westminster. They can by such pro¬
ceeding obtain the opinion of a body having in its mem¬
bers the ablest lawyers of Britain, whose judgment must

72

IMPERIAL FEDERA TION.

necessarily be absolutely impartial, and carries at this
moment greater weight in the minds of the Canadians than
do their own civil courts. It is the same with Austra¬
lians, and a change will only come when Supreme Courts
in the Colonies are composed of men who are without
rivals in ability and reputation among their countrymen,
and when it is no longer believed that the judgment of
an inferior provincial court carries as sound an opinion as
does the confirmation or reversal of it by a higher Federal
tribunal.

At present this has not been attained in the case
of the Canadian Supreme Court, eminent as are the
lawyers on its Bench ; and the great merit and ability
of many of the provincial judges make it difficult to
constitute any tribunal whose decisions would be held
to justify an interpretation of the law which might be
adverse to their interpretation. The complexity also of
the state of things arising from a Federal union where
certain powers are reserved to the Provinces, and others
are assigned to the Central Government, often give rise
to difficult points of law.

The Canadian Constitution dates only from 1867, and
the institution of a Supreme Court only from 1876, so
that it is not surprising that doubtful cases of constitu¬
tional law are carried to a Court whose decisions are, if
not unimpeachable, certainly of an authority which can
be acquired only with time and the highest reputation.
In the United States a Supreme Court has been consti¬
tuted which fully satisfies the national demand for probity

PRESENT FEDERA T10N.

73

and wisdom, and commands an authority and respect
unquestioned and unrivalled ; but Canada prefers to con¬
tinue to submit her difficult cases in law to a judgment
carrying even greater weight, and which is as much her
own as it is England’s.

Mr. Todd, a great writer on constitutional practice,
and a gentleman whose reputation as its best exponent
in the Colonies is universally acknowledged, wrote as
justly of this as of all the subjects of which he treated.
“The appellate jurisdiction of the Queen in Council
is retained for the benefit of the Colonies, not for that
of the mother country. It secures to every British
subject a right to claim redress of grievances from the
Throne. It provides a remedy in certain cases not
falling within the jurisdiction of ordinary courts of jus¬
tice ; it removes causes from the influence of local pre¬
possessions ; it affords the means of maintaining the
uniformity of the law of England in those Colonies
which derive the great body of their law from Great
Britain ; and it enables suitors, if they think fit, to ob¬
tain a decision in the last resort from the highest judicial
authority and legal capacity existing in the metropolis.

“It is true that in a Colony which possesses an efficient
Court of Appeal, it may be seldom necessary to have
recourse to this supreme tribunal. Nevertheless its
controlling power, though dormant and rarely invoked,
is felt by every judge in the Empire, because he knows
that his decisions are liable to be submitted to it. Under
such circumstances it is not surprising that British

74

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

colonists have uniformly exhibited a strong desire not
to part with the right of appeal from Colonial courts to
the Queen and Council.

“ Since the establishing of responsible government in
the principal British Colonies, the supreme interpretation
and application of the law upon appeal to the mother
country has became almost the sole remaining instance
of a power exercised through the Crown over the self-
governing dependencies of the realm. But even in the
Colonies which have been entrusted with the largest
measure of self-government, the right of appeal to the
Privy Council continues to be regarded with the greatest
respect and appreciation.”

Indeed the more serious the question, and the more
involved the several opposing sections of the people
have become in the cause to be determined, the more
readily do all parties submit to the judgment they seek
from “Home,” as represented by the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council. Delicate questions of provincial
rights, contentions between rival provinces to great areas
of land, the interpretation of almost fundamental consti¬
tutional relations, are all placed before this highest Court,
to whose decisions every citizen unhesitatingly bows.

The respect for the judgment of the highest authorities
of impartial law has been also extended to the greatest
authorities on another subject, in a matter also uncon¬
nected with any party politics, namely, armed defence.

The Colonies, with adequate preparation for the educa¬
tion of officers, must be expected to demand that the ap-

PRESENT EE PE PA TION.

75

pointment to ordinary military positions carrying emolu¬
ments paid from Colonial Treasuries, shall be kept wholly
in the hands of Colonial authorities. It is much to be
desired, however, that for the supreme commands, they
only who have gone through the mill of actual campaign¬
ing, and have been brought up in the great school of the
regular service, and have had the experience of warfare
which is only to be obtained with Imperial forces, so con¬
stantly engaged in active work in one corner or another of
the world, shall be appointed. It is essential that the com¬
mand and power of directing movements, and the dis¬
position of troops, Imperial and Colonial, be under one
central control. It matters not whether the man so ap¬
pointed be English, Australian, or Canadian, so long as he
has had experience of campaigning, and has made a name
for himself as a leader of men. None other may so well
make any levies committed to his charge trust him,
respect him, and submit to any discipline and privation
in order to follow where he commands. This can never
be the case if any Government is swayed by other than
purely military considerations. If at any time mere political
influence dominated the selection of such appointments,
the efficiency and cohesion of the forces would be lost,
and the excellence of the individuals composing them
neutralized.

To select men to commands who may be acceptable
to political parties because their influence can carry a
certain number of votes in a political battle, would be a
most mistaken action. Instead of rendering Colonial

76

IMPERIAL FEDERA TION.

governments more independent, it would narrow their
area of choice of men to those few persons who might
happen, it may be, to have seen service, but have after¬
wards rusted in rural life, and whose only claim to
military respect and authority might be comprised in the
sentiment, “he is one of us.”

If, through the over-zeal of a martinet, or want of tact
or lack of sympathy with the Colonial troops, any ex¬
perienced officer were not to succeed in obtaining the
confidence of the Colonists, he should be changed ; but
he should not be changed because he is not himself a
Colonist. Another officer should be demanded, and se¬
lected by the Imperial authorities, with the concurrence
of the Colonial Government, who may better suit the
local temperament, and who would not have the fatal
disqualification of being too old, too long unused to
arms, or too inexperienced in the active work of cam¬
paigning to be known as a thoroughly worthy commander.

Party pressure is often one of the miseries of minis¬
terial existence. It is by no means exerted only for the
country’s good, and where personal merits and demerits
are concerned, and fitness for a special place ought to
be considered, it is often wholly blind and unscrupulous.

No State escapes from it. Some are more helpless
under it than others. It invades justice, and sacrifices
liberty in many. Patriotism cannot banish its baneful
oppression, which is fond of appearing in the disguise of
friendship, of generosity, or of a love for native merit.
Happy is that Government which can place beyond the

PRESENT FEDERATION.

77

pale of its influence the courts of law and the military
guardianship of the land ; and can exercise, unfettered by
the politics of the hour, the patronage which may ruin or
save the Commonwealth.

Certainly those States are to be envied which, through
their alliance with another, greater, older, and stronger
than themselves, have at their command against such
evil influences the bulwark of appeal to the mother
land. The Colonies have shown that they appreciate
this refuge for their ministers ; and no phrase is more
often heard among them than this : “ We know the value
of Britain as amicus cur ice P

England is willing to act as a friend between Colonial
disputants, and to settle their differences if they ask her
to do so, to act as arbitress, and to loose the knotty points
of law. But it is only when such offices are demanded
of her that she can usefully become mediator, for she has
no cause or wish to interfere where she is not invited to
pronounce an opinion. Certain things should be left
to her to decide owing to her benevolent cO-operation,
and one of these has been the right to express decidedly
her view that confusion in the command of armies is
ruinous, and that where there is a common obligation of
defence, there should be agreement that there can be
only one source for the designation to the supreme
military command.

The advantage of the reference to the Home authorities
for their opinion on difficult or doubtful matters is so
fully seen that it has been advocated by Colonial govern-

78

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

rnents in cases where it was not expected. An instance,
and a very remarkable one, occurred in 1879 in Canada,
when a new House of Commons reversed the decision of
a previous Parliament, and decided to ask for the dis¬
missal from his office of a Lieutenant-Governor, who had
demanded the resignation of a local government, and had
found in the leader of the Provincial opposition a new
Minister willing to take the responsibility of the act, and to
carry on the new government with a majority of one only in
the local assembly. The Lieutenant-Governor’s act had
been legal, but was not conceived in the spirit of modern
constitutional usage. When the House of Commons
voted for his dismissal, points were raised involving con¬
flicting interpretations of the Canadian constitution, and
the Governor- General did not consider that it conduced to
the best interests of the country that the Ministry should
give effect to the vote of their supporters in the Commons
House. They desired, however, to do so ; but rather
than have any contention with the Governor-General,
they suggested that the amicus curias be called in, and
that the opinion of the Secretary of State be asked.
They thus showed a desire to obtain the approval of an
impartial opinion ; but the Secretary of State wisely
declined to do more than indicate the reasons against
the contemplated procedure, leaving the whole respon¬
sibility of an interpretation of the Canadian Confedera¬
tion Act, which further defined a Federal Power, to the
Government concerned. The officer around whom so
much controversy had raged was deprived of his office,

PRESENT FEDERATION.

79

and it is unlikely that any future Lieutenant-Governor
will again act as did M. Letellier, unless he can be quite
certain that the party he belongs to in the Federal
Parliament will remain in office.

It will be seen that the existing ties between Eng¬
land and the Colonies are valued because valuable to
the new countries. They may be employed for calm¬
ing passion and settling difficult questions. They may
be retained or relinquished, for freedom governs the
relations between the countries. But they are signs and
proofs of that real community of interests which underlie
the sentiments of kinship, and pride in a common
heritage.

During this reign one other tie has been especially
regarded with reverence and affection, and it is that
which enables all citizens of this Empire to call them¬
selves the subjects of the Queen. Her name has
acquired a magic force, the strength of which can only
be realized by those who have heard the National Anthem
sung by men, women, and children in regions many thou¬
sands of miles distant from England. It matters not where
it be heard, for in whatever part of the world her standard
flies, that strain of music, and the thoughts which come
with it, make the voices ring with the true loyalty that
reverences woman and loves the glorious sovereignty of
freedom. The fervour to be heard in such notes should
count for something in the calculation men are making
as to the chance of keeping shoulder to shoulder wher¬
ever British hearts are beating.

CHAPTER VI.

COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION.

In looking at Imperial Federation, the place occupied by
India in the Empire has purposely been left undiscussed,
for she is not self-governed, and does not direct her own
fiscal policy. Her influence and weight is none the less felt
that she is governed by Englishmen as desirous of pressing
onward her commerce as if a native government held
the reins. In regard to that greatest and grandest of our
possessions, which we won through the enterprise of
our merchants and the valour of our soldiers, we have
elaborated so complete a system of rule that, much as
we should desire that the people among her varied
nationalities, should gradually take upon themselves
more and more a part in local affairs, we could never,
without surrendering them to intestine wars and the
periodic revelry of anarchy and despotism, abandon the
standpoint we have adopted as the persevering benefactor
and the permanent conqueror of her wonderful territories.

The mere jealousies among her princes and the balanced
position they must occupy as regards each other (now
maintained amongst them through the peace which is
enforced by our sword), tend to make any representation

COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION. Si

of her vast numbers an impossibility in a central assembly.
In the English sense, she cannot be governed by her
people for her people.

Individuals among them possess much power, and have
been raised by us to great dignity. We shall more
and more open to distinguished natives a line of legiti¬
mate, useful, and peaceful ambition, which is for their
good, and necessary for the permanence of that British
rule among them which has conferred benefits beside
which the most beneficent acts of such rulers as the
Great Mogul sink into absolute insignificance.

It is in climates and countries where the white man may
thrive and multiply, and where our race has been proved
to be able to uphold its own through the vigour of its
progeny born upon the soil, that we must look for the
strongest elements of Empire, and it is only at the
Cape of Good Hope, in British North America, and in
Australasia that we find these conditions realized. The
Cape has so fertile a soil and so excellent a climate, and
is so favourable as a coaling station, that although its
progress has been slower than its brethren, we may
expect it to be fourth only in importance to ourselves.

Expensive and bloody as have been the wars with
its aborigines (Kaffir, Hottentot, and Zulu), these con¬
flicts have led to surveys which have proved that an
enormous area, stretching up to the north of the Trans¬
vaal, is marvellously rich in pasture lands, capable of
the cultivation of corn and sugar, and productive to a
wondrous degree of gold and precious gems.

7

82

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

The early colonists of the mixed blood of English,
Dutch, French, and German, and known by the name of
the Boers, are a people whose physical powers bear eloquent
testimony to the healthiness of the countries known as
the Transvaal and Orange Free State. We ourselves have
found Natal so healthy and so adapted for the settler that
towns like Durban have within the last few years acquired
a population of seven or eight thousand. With great
tracts of land, of hill and of grassy plain, peopled with
a mixture ot English and Dutch, the Cape of Good Hope
is steadily increasing its resources, and is slowly attracting
emigration.

Australia has along the whole of the enormous extent
of its southern coast-line a climate which, although warm,
has proved itself to be capable of maintaining our race
in full vigour. Its vast interior, often supposed to be
only a desert, with a fertile rim around it, is alleged to
contain spaces which will provide healthy homes for men
of white blood. Its mineral treasures, first discovered
by Count Streletzki, are apparently endless. The New
South Wales coalfields, of far greater area than the
British, seem inexhaustible.

Coal, gold, corn, wool, and wine; wood, wheat, and
fish, are the chief features of the commerce furnished
to the world by our Southern and by our Northern
possessions. Meat for the inner and diamonds for the
outer man must be added to the list, which may be fully
studied in the statistical tables of almanacs, and is indi¬
cated briefly at the end of this essay. Most of the

COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION. 83

great teiritories have vast areas adapted to agriculture or
pasture. Whenever this is not the case the colonist will
tell you that all the rest of the country is unrivalled for
its mineral resources, and certainly there is no lack of
variety and plenty of the produce of the mine. Every
precious ore, with the exception of mercury, has already
been largely worked, and the memory must be racked
to find what the Colonies do not possess in variety of
climate and product, dhe mere outlines of the increase
in Australasian wealth are astonishing, for during the
last ten years the population have increased 42 per cent.,
commerce 47 per cent., wool production 70 per cent.,
acres under cultivation 120 per cent., railways 431 per
cent., telegraphs 190 per cent., revenue 123 per cent.

These are the figures given from official returns,
and further we also find that the annual revenues of
the several Governments have increased from nine mil¬
lions to nearly 22 millions sterling, being an average of
£l 13s- 6d. per head of population. The live stock
now consists of 76,493,150 sheep, 8,429,448 cattle,
1,219,342 horses, and 807,711 pigs. The land under
cultivation increased from 3,165,000 acres to nearly
7,000,000 acres, and the total acreage now under crop
gives an average of 2 -45 acres per head of population.

During the same period the tonnage of shipping
entered and cleared at all the ports in Australasia in¬
creased from 4,517,028 tons to 10,866,859 tons. Steam¬
ships of from four to five thousand tons burthen are now
engaged in the carrying trade. The yearly value of

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

84

Colonial produce and manufactures exported annually is
estimated at 5 1 millions sterling.

The deposits in the Colonial Banks of Issue, on the
30th September, 1882, amounted to ,£66,471,922, giving
a larger amount per head of population than is shown in
Great Britain.

In 1828 the trade between the Australian Colonies,
England, and foreign States amounted to ,£n4>477>694,
or an average of ^39 I^s- 7^. Per head of population, of
which the sum of £22 4s. 3d. was for imports, and ^17
12s. 4d. for exports. Fiji in 1882 had a trade amounting
to ,£493,846, being ,£303,329 for imports, and ,£190,517
for exports.

The expenditure of the several Colonies in 1882
amounted to ,£10,056,823, against revenue to the
amount of ,£22,064,108, being a surplus 0^2,007,285
for 1882.1

When it is remembered that the whole of the Canadian
Federal Revenue only amounts to a little over 30,000,000
of dollars, it will be seen how rich is Australasia. Her
cities are also very large in proportion to the number
of her people, for Sydney and Melbourne have nearly
twice as many people as has Montreal, the largest of
the Canadian cities, although the total population of
British North America is five millions, as against Austra¬
lia’s three millions. All the Colonies take more of
English than of foreign manufactures, and a great

1 See Appendix.

COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION. S5

increase in the international trade is certain to arise
during the next few years.

We may estimate the wholly different circumstances
now attendant on the position of the parent country
as compared with that of her children from the fact
that we have become a country whose exports pre¬
ponderate enormously over our imports— that is to say,
we have been successful in forming our trade lines of
travel, which extend to almost every land, and bring
us into touch with all the world whether for good or
evil. Our Colonies, on the other hand, have hardly
begun to feel their way to the world-markets, and have a
comparatively small commerce as compared with ours.
It is but yesterday that Australia began to trade with San
Francisco.

It is only since 1849 that San Francisco itself existed,
and its trade connection by means of the Trans-continental
Railway to New York, with the eastern half of the United
States, is much younger. Australia’s trade with us is
still a dominant feature of her activity, but we can hardly
expect this to continue when the American continent
possesses, as it must soon possess, more than three
times the number of souls now living upon these isles.
Then will Australia have a still more separate com¬
mercial policy to protect and defend than she has at
present. As yet she has had hardly any foreign policy
because she has hardly any foreign trade.

With Canada, in the same way, with the exception of a
comparatively paltry commerce in fish with Portugal and

86

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

the Mediterranean and South America, there has been
little commerce with any foreign country except the
United States, and her whole anxiety with reference to
foreigners has been expressed in her wish for treaties
giving her reciprocal relations such as that concluded
with her neighbours by the Treaty of Washington, ne¬
gotiated .in 1854. Now, as her trade extends, the con¬
venience of commercial arrangements with her great
neighbour will be still more desired, and her relations with
other nations have led to the offer of reductions in her
duties on French and Spanish merchandize.

Still, however, it must be many years before the
trade of these new countries assumes anything like the
importance of the commerce carried on by our own
35,000,000 of people at home. Naturally as the cir¬
cumstances of the amount of trade interests become
more alike, we must make up our minds to accentuate,
rather than annul, any differences arising from separate
trade policies. But the recognition of these differences in
fiscal policy can only lead to disintegration of the Empire

if the Imperial machinery, devised to push the interests

*

of each portion of our Federation, fail. As each partner
in our firm becomes more wealthy the credit of the house
(to use a mercantile simile) is increased, and a greater
power is acquired to conduct in union any operation
important to all, the beneficial results of which shall be
felt in the improvement of the position of one or several,
or of each, of the members of the Federation.

It is remarkable with what very different eyes the

COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION. 87

various Australian colonies have regarded the question
of “ Protection” by tariff. New South Wales and Victoria,
the two most important communities, have been the leaders
in the exposition of opposing economical views of policy.
Victoria has been most conspicuous amongst those favour¬
ing what the Canadians would call a “ higher revenue
tariff,” whereas New South Wales, trusting to the im¬
mense demand for coal, and relying upon the fiscal
system based largely after the English model, is still
looked upon with loving eyes by the members of the
Cobden Club, as reproducing in a young colony the
ideas prevalent in the parent land. Prophecies are pro¬
verbially unsafe, but it is extremely doubtful whether
New South Wales will not follow her sisters’ rather than
our own example.

Each Colony insists on maintaining a separate customs
and excise line, and on unpacking the portmanteaus
of their brethren on the borders of each State, and it
is only during the last twelve months that there has
been any common action tending to establish among
them some cohesion and co-operation for defence.
This has been brought about by the threatening attitude
assumed by France and Germany. France, desirous of
distracting the attention of her people from a war of
revenge, and from any fresh attempt to hurl the armies of
the Republic against the guarded frontiers and gigantic
fortresses of her German conqueror in the war of 1870,
has plunged into quarrels involving expeditions in Ton-
quin, and has exhibited a desire to make her influence

88

IMPERIAL FED ERA TION.

felt in the Mediterranean and other places, notably in the
desire to use and annex as convict establishments some
of the fair island groups in the Pacific.

Australians are naturally aghast at the prospect of
having so-called French “Recidivists,” or criminals, placed
upon islands where guardianship is difficult and not
carefully maintained, and where prisons may easily be
broken. An escape successfully effected by the malefactors
could only result in their landing upon the shores of
Australia, for her coasts of New South Wales and Queens¬
land offer the nearest refuge. In their protests against
the dreaded incursion thus threatened they have been
unanimous.

Again, their ambition has always pointed in the direc¬
tion of the annexation of the great island of New Guinea,
which, although lying in a hot climate, is yet coveted for
the enormous natural wealth supposed to exist hidden
beneath its tangled jungles. Expeditions to ascertain its
resources have made reports tending yet further to make
men believe that its settlement for civilization and the
extraction of its riches would well repay the cost ; but
complete exploration has been baffled by the hostility of
the natives.

Germany in this case has been the European power
which has aroused the susceptibilities of our kindred.
Desirous that no European nation other than the British
should have a frontier practically conterminous with the
regions under the sway of her governments, Australia’s
suspicions have been for some time directed to the acqui-

COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION. 89

sition of property by German merchants, who have, as
they have obtained a footing, attracted the attention of
Prince Bismarck and won him over to a policy of an¬
nexation and colonization. Germany’s young men have
hitherto been content to flock in vast numbers from the
Fatherland, and to make themselves thoroughly at home
under the stars and stripes, while the Reichstag has
regarded as an extra and probably useless expense the
possession of colonies. Germans have been slow to form
any colonies, apparently preferring the greater freedom
to be found in the Anglo-Saxon commonwealths to the
extension of the military empire they have served at
home. But the example shown by the Dutch, who have
made Java pay a large revenue, and the wish to show
the power of the Fatherland in protecting the interests of
its traders in New Guinea, in South Africa, and in Samoa
in the Pacific, have induced the German Chancellor to
countenance the hoisting of the red-white-and-black
banner on several spots coveted by trade houses of
Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck.

Australia has hitherto, with reference to intercolonial
trade, only been able to carry on a commerce with
Canada through the United States, whose tariff is almost
prohibitory of any dealing, and bonded goods have not
to any great extent found their way between the two great
Colonies.

Now that the Canadian Pacific Railway approaches
completion (and we are assured that it will be opened
for goods traffic this year), Canada will become one of

90

IMPERIAL ELDER A TION.

Australia’s customers, and there will be a reciprocal
commerce.

It has been assumed that much of the Asian trade to
England will pass over the new line, and it may be so;
but the experience of the American lines is that only a
very small percentage of Asian traffic passes over the
“Union and Central Railroad” for a European desti¬
nation, and that the large imports from Australia are all
for American consumption. Already New South Wales
coal, and the mighty “lumber” got from the jarrah and
other Eucalypti, vie with the timber of Oregon and the
coal of the Canadian Pacific mines of Nanamio (on Van¬
couver’s Island) in supplying the wants of San Francisco.

When it is remembered that that great city, like the
Australian cities, has sprung into existence during the
last forty years, it is difficult to estimate the amount of
commerce which another century will see established
between them. It is probable that the goods destined
for Europe will continue to be sent from Australia by
the Suez Canal, for the breaking of bulk in transhipment
from vessel to railway is a disadvantage which can only
be compensated by a very great shortening of the route.
Australia will therefore have the same interest which
England has in securing her influence along the high¬
ways between India and Europe, as well as maintaining
a predominance in the seas which lie between her and
that country. Canada having now extended her terri¬
tories to the Pacific, and having important interests which
can only adequately be defended by naval as well as land

COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION. 91

forces on the Atlantic, is with Australia and the Cape
Government liable to common misfortunes in the event
of a war between England and a powerful adversary,
being largely dependent on the safe carriage of ocean
freights. England has hitherto undertaken all naval
defence, but she has indicated that the Colonies must
assist the troops she is willing to send them for land
service with strong Provincial levies of well-trained men.
On these the Colonies, when the mother country is
seriously pressed, might have to place their sole reliance.

It is obvious that, with regard to the general question
of defence, it would be best to provide for the thorough
and complete protection of each country by its own
local forces in the first instance, and that any charge
for general defensive operations be restricted in the
meantime to contributions for naval purposes. This
does not exclude us from taking our share in military
operations, should the Colonies be involved in difficulties
consequent upon their connection with us. Our con¬
nection with them involves mutual effort to ward off
danger at any point, and as yet there has been no shrink¬
ing from responsibilities involved.

A brief mention should not be omitted of the forces
maintained by the various governments. These consist,
as a rule, of militia and ill-trained levies. Their want of
training is in some measure compensated for by the indi¬
vidual intelligence of the men. It is very unusual that
any annual training is enforced which can really make the
troops worthy of their metal. Any operations carried out

92

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

in the most favourable season of the year, and bringing
together from civil life men who may be drilled only
for ten days, a fortnight, or three weeks, are too apt to as¬
sume a complexion more characteristic of a pleasant picnic
than of stern military work and practice. The officers
also, although full of zeal, have often not had the op¬
portunity of handling bodies of men, and are incapable
from a mere study of the drill book, however con¬
scientiously carried out, to thoroughly supervise and direct
movements in the field. If men can only be trained for
a few days during each year, on account of the expense
entailed, it is doubly incumbent on the authorities in power
to make those days useful to the country, in giving the best
instructors to troops who eagerly and intelligently learn all
that is taught them. As a rule it has been too often only
from the staff of superior officers that good instruction
could be obtained, for the officers of high rank are
generally veterans of the Imperial army. Schools for the
regimental and non-commissioned officers are urgently
needed, and are being in part supplied.

It would not be difficult for Australia, out of her three
millions of people, to place with scarcely an effort thirty
or forty thousand good troops in the field ; but when the
term “good” is used it must be understood that a
thorough training under competent officers must first be
provided to make their excellence felt on any field of
action. For the defence of harbour works and garrisons,
and generally for the purposes of defence, likely to be
required on account of any invasion of their ports by hostile

COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION. 93

squadrons, no anxiety as to their qualifications need be
felt. The most praiseworthy spirit has been shown in
willingness to spend their money in the employment of
good officers trained in England. Torpedo defences,
and even a small marine, are being provided.

It is, however, doubtful whether it will not be wiser for
Australia to ask that the naval defence should be under¬
taken by the Imperial navy, at all events for the present.
An arrangement could be arrived at by which some pro¬
portion of the cost of the ships might be defrayed from
local sources if the vessels be demanded for local pro¬
tection. In New Zealand there are, perhaps, more
Colonial soldiers who have seen service, and who have
undergone a thorough training, than in any other of our
possessions, for the wars with the Maories have been
largely participated in by New Zealanders, and when the
British troops retired it was necessary for them to keep
up the volunteer militia forces, so as to be able to cope
with the formidable natives. Systematic military training
schools and colleges are, however, lacking at the antipodes.

The Cape Government only contributed about £ 6,000
sterling towards the expenses of the last Zulu war, which
cost the Home Government ,£5,000,000, although a very
large expenditure was incurred by them to assist in defray¬
ing the expenses of previous conflicts waged against the
natives. Good forces of cavalry and mounted riflemen
have been levied as Provincial troops in South Africa,
but here again permanence of training is lacking, and we
have to go to Canada to see the beginning of a sounder and

94

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

more permanent military system. Her government has
power to call out all the able-bodied men in the country
from eighteen to forty-five years of age, but this has
never been done, and it is to be hoped never will be.

The so-called “ sedentary militia” exists only on paper.
The active militia is nominally of a strength of 40,000
men, but these have never been called out together
during any single year. If we look at the past history
of the force, they have, assisted by British troops, or when
acting alone, repeatedly shown the stuff of which they are
made, and were victorious in many conflicts during the
last war with America. But it is not on these historical
reminiscences, but on the actual system now prevalent
that we must dwell. Of the excellence of material and
the spirit of the men it is impossible to speak too highly.
When the Fenian raids were made in 1867 and 1872
volunteers sprang to the ranks so quickly that each
battalion might have been double-manned in twenty-four
hours, and not forty thousand but two hundred or three
hundred thousand men might have been called together.

Practically the annual trainings, occurring as they
happily have occurred during times of profound peace,
have rarely seen over twenty-five thousand men in arms.
Divided into different military districts, each section has
its adjutant-general and staff. Two hundred and fifty
men are considered adequate to represent a battalion in
peace, and much time and money are given by the
patriotic gentlemen who have hitherto accepted commands.

Many officers of regulars had settled in Canada,

COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION, 95

when British regulars garrisoned it, and after the
Imperial troops retired, the country was well sprinkled
with these. Many non-commissioned officers whose
time of service had expired joined the militia as in¬
structors. From these the Canadians were fairly well
furnished for a time with leaders of the rank and file, but
the old soldiers died out, and there was little provision made
to fill the gaps, until under Mr. Mackenzie’s government
two batteries of artillery were embodied as training
schools, both for infantry and artillery, at Quebec and at
Kingston. At the same time a first-rate college for the
instruction of officers was established. It was provided
with excellent military professors, and a four years’
thorough course of study of the profession of arms was
imparted to the cadets, as at the great Imperial establish¬
ments of Sandhurst and Woolwich. Continued under
Sir John Macdonald’s government, this institution has
now received the sanction of two administrations, and
the worth of its teaching has been recognized by the
concession to the young officers trained there of four
commissions annually in the Imperial army. The War
Office authorities have declared that the gentlemen who
have accepted these commissions are in all respects as
well trained as are those from the older establishments in
England. Though the militia force cannot absorb all the
cadets who leave, yet the education is by no means lost
if they follow, as most of them do, professions in civil life.

Civil engineering with other subjects as useful in civil
life are taught, and the cadet from the Royal Military

96

IMPERIAL FEDERATION, ,

College of Kingston, should he not obtain a commission
in the Imperial army or Canadian forces, only finds him¬
self in a similar position to the United States cadet, who
may leave the West Point Academy, and may be unable
to find a berth in the small army of twenty-five thousand
men which the United States thinks sufficient in time
of peace to form the regular army of the Federal executive.

Military students from the Canadian Institution also
often proceed to take up appointments in civil life in the
United States, a course not to be deplored, for in the event
of trouble they would rally to their own country, just as
the old West Point cadets rallied respectively in the Civil
War to the standard of their States, whether these be¬
longed to the North, or to the Southern Confederacy.

It is obvious that Kingston cannot give all that is re¬
quired to supply the militia with battalion and non-com¬
missioned officers, and in 1884 it was determined to
provide another regular battery in British Columbia, and
to institute infantry training schools, each having a com¬
pany of regulars, or, as it was preferred to call them,
“embodied militia,” at Toronto, St. John’s near Mon¬
treal, and St. John’s New Brunswick. If gentlemen who
have obtained certificates from these schools be alone
allowed to bear commissions, and if similar steps betaken
with regard to non-commissioned officers, the leaders of
the Canadian militia will be worthy of the soldier-like
qualities conspicuous in the rank and file.

For naval defence, unfortunately, very little has been
done, No contribution is given to the Imperial navy for

COMMERCE AND ITS PROTECTION. 97

guarding the Fisheries, a tedious work requiring constant
tact and vigilance, nor has there as yet been any proper
provision made for the organization of torpedo corps for
instruction in submarine mining, which, in case of trouble,
would be of the utmost use in defending harbours in the
long lake and sea frontier.

Looking at Imperial defence as a means of protecting
Imperial commerce, the want most apparent is training
for Provincial troops. There is excellent material always
present, but the non-commissioned officer is often no
more instructed than his men.

The example of Canada in founding Kingston College
should be followed throughout the Colonies, and a
greater number of days should be given to the training
of troops. Thirty days in every two years is better than
a fortnight annually. Heavier expenses are not so much
demanded as a proper bestowal of the money now voted
by the Colonial Parliaments.

8

CHAPTER VII.

RECENT MANIFESTATIONS OF SPIRIT OF UNION.

The recent manifestations of a spirit which makes men
exclaim, “Why, Federation exists already if it means
union against a foreign power !” have been very remark¬
able, but they have not been exhibited for the first time.
In all our old wars, in those against the French, as well
as in troubles of a more internecine character, our
Colonies have always proved themselves willing to stand
with us.

It was perhaps natural that, during the latter half of
the eighteenth century, New Englanders should assault
with the British soldiers the fortifications of Louisburg,
and that the “ Provincials ” under Washington should
rally to the attack of the strong places designed by the
kings of France to form a cordon stretching from New
France and Acadia to the Mississippi and Louisiana.
These were fetters for the limbs of the Anglo-Saxon
Colonies, and it was to be expected they should strike
at them.

But the heroic devotion shown by the scattered
loyalists in Upper and Lower Canada and in the seaboard
provinces when the terrible threat of an invasion from

RECENT MANIFESTATIONS OF SPIRIT OF UNION. 99

the south was actually carried into execution in 1813,
was most remarkable. There was no flinching, and almost
to their own astonishment victory crowned their bravery
on several well-fought fields. And since those sad but
glorious days, the same spirit has been consistently
shown. Volunteering to take part in the Crimean War
was briskly carried on in 1854.

Australia also, vulnerable as her coastline is to hostile
cruisers, has never for one instant displayed any feeling
but that of eagerness to defend herself as a part of the
Empire, and a readiness to play her part in any storm
of war.

During the American civil conflict in 1861 the so-called
“Trent outrage” occurred, and the two Southern com¬
missioners were taken by the Northerners from a vessel
flying the British flag. Then, in the Laureate’s words,
“the shadow of war moved like eclipse,” darkening the
relations between ourselves and the Americans, and
caused the prompt despatch of Guards and other troops
to Canada, in view of a possible march upon that country.
The Canadians showed on that occasion, although it
opened out to them the fearful prospect of their country
becoming the theatre of action, no disposition to turn
from the peril ; but they armed themselves, and welcomed
with enthusiasm the men sent to aid in their defence.

There has, indeed, hardly been a single occasion of
probable war that has not called forth eager expressions
of martial and patriotic spirit and desire to share in the
peril and glory of the old country.

100

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

The offers lately made to send troops for active
service in the Soudan have, however, this special feature
. — the homes of the people volunteering to aid the British
forces are in no way menaced by the results of the cam¬
paign which has been the immediate cause of the offers
made.

No man can say that Canada has a selfish interest of
any kind in the prosecution of this war. Australia, on the
other hand, has very direct interests in the influence
we possess in Egypt in connection with the Suez Canal,
through which so much of her own commerce passes.

Taking this into account, the fact yet remains that
this war represents almost the extreme case where, selfish
interests being hardly touched, the offer for active service
on the part of the great Colonies may be held to demon¬
strate that they feel it to be patriotic and right that they
should share in the burdens as well as in the privileges of
the great Empire of which they constitute so important a
part. In our crowned democracies, as with us in England,
it is more often the people who take the initiative than
their Governments, and the official voice speaks only
after the spontaneous cry has arisen from the masses.

It can hardly be said, however, that on this occasion
the Governments were behindhand, for scarcely was the
note of sorrow for the fall of Khartoum and the death
of Gordon heard, than there came from Australia the
words: “We offer a contingent; men, horses, and guns
are ready to start, and we desire to pay the cost.” It
would almost seem that among the great services ren-

RECENT MANIFESTATIONS OF SPIRIT OF UNION, ioi

dered to his country and to all with whom he came
in contact, the heroic Gordon has rendered the last
and crowning service of his life in being the cause for
another display, under altered conditions, of the noble
spirit of Imperial union.

It was really the enthusiasm kindled by his wonderful
career and character, and solitary defence of that African
city against all the fanatic Moslem hordes, which kindled
afresh in the minds of men an admiration for British
pluck, and the desire to carry out, under the British flag,
the purpose for which he had fallen. It was not the
bare sands of the Soudan which rose to the vision, but
the figure of the stainless soldier stemming unaided the
tumultuous onslaught of the followers of a false prophet.
It was this wonder at, and reverence for the man, and a
belief that where he had led, English-speaking men should
follow, which produced the offer from the Colonies for
active service.

The offer was echoed throughout Australasia, each
community being anxious to show its sympathy in the Im¬
perial fortunes, although these were injured more in feeling
than in fact. From Canada came the same note of patriot¬
ism — a note not emanating from the English-speaking
races alone, for French Canadian officers were resolute in
volunteering, as they had been two years before, when
the battle of Tel-el-Ivebir was fought by Lord Wolseley.

Thus, for the first time in history, had great self-
governing Colonies the opportunity of showing at a time
of no deadly pressure, but when there was a shadow of

102

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

real danger, how willing they are to form one battle
line with us. If such results can spring from the death
of one hero contending with Arabs, what may not be
expected from our Colonies if an enemy were ever able
to fly at Britain’s throat?

Such events cast to the winds any cold and shrewd
calculation of chances. The blood leaps and tingles, and
the brain obeys the impulse. When the impulse is so
easily aroused it is important to remember how strong
are the powers it may bring into motion. Take, for
instance, the natural military spirit of her people as shown
in British North America. During the great American
contest, between 1861 and 1864, judgment and calcula¬
tion would have asserted that the Canadians would have
been glad to be out of the trouble, and so, indeed, as repre¬
sented by their Government, they were. But the fighting
element among them delighted in the chance of taking
part in peril. Although these men had as a rule no
special sympathy for South or North, yet partly, on
account of feeling, partly on account of blood relation¬
ship, but chiefly for love of fighting, many thousands of
Canadians took part with the Northern army, which was
the most easily reached. It has been estimated that forty
to fifty thousand men thus served in the Northern ranks.

The bulk of mankind do not weigh the right or the
wrong in such cases. It is enough that the drums beat
and the musketry rattles, and that the battle flags are
those their friends carry, or are those under which their
fathers fought. Such considerations are enough.

RECENT MANIFEST A TIONS OF SPIRIT OF UNION. 103

And of all strong sentiments which sway men in
Canada, as indeed in all the Colonies, the strongest, next
to the love of their own country, is the love for the grand
Empire they have shared in founding, and have done so
much to extend. There are a few with long purses, who
desire to make them longer by forswearing allegiance
to the old flag, the old freedom, and the old glory ; but
watch any man who expresses such sentiments in private,
mount the platform at a public meeting, no matter where,
and mark how he covers over such ideas with words of
a very different bearing ! And why ? Because he knows
political poltroonery is political death, and that he may
as well seek to become the representative of the inhabi¬
tants of the moon as the member for a disloyal town or
county in the Dominion of Canada ! So it is in Australia.
No, he has no chance, and if we are as true to the
Colonies as they are true to us, such as he “never will
have a chance.”

And in regard to the sons of the “ Giant Ocean Isle,”
it is remarkable that the offers of their service came at a
moment when owing to peculiar circumstances a strong
feeling has been raised among them against the Home
Government. This has in no wise influenced their
patriotism. They have laid the blame on the individual
members of the Government, and have refused to swerve
by one hair’s breadth from their loyalty to their connec¬
tion with the old country. Yet the exasperation among
them owing to what they have considered the pusillani¬
mous, hesitating, and vacillating policy of the Colonial

104

IMPERIAL FEDERA TION.

Office was effervescent at the very moment when the
greater and over-mastering impulse came upon them to
place their volunteers by the side of our troops in Africa.

And they had had much reason for their anger. New
Guinea, the great and desirable island to the north, had
been coveted not only by their people for its riches, but
by their statesmen on account of its position. Its acqui¬
sition promised not only riches but the blessings of peace
in the absence from their neighbourhood of any foreign
military power. One of their Colonies had taken formal
possession of it, but the act was disavowed at home.

Its seizure by a foreign power, the very catastrophe
the Australians feared, occurred soon afterwards. Ger¬
many showed a desire to possess herself of New Guinea,
and it was only by tardy action that the Home Govern¬
ment saved it from being wholly embodied in the Ger¬
man Empire. It was the same with Australian claims to
Samoa and other islands where their aspirations were
backed in a very halting spirit by the Secretary of
State, so that at one time it seemed that French convicts
and German military posts would become for Australia
inevitable neighbours. Smarting under these circum¬
stances, it was doubly significant that without hesitation
their responsible governments were ready to launch into
those expenses which betoken the wider patriotism it is
the province of “ Imperial Federation ” to evoke.

CHAPTER VIII.

WHAT MAY NOW BE DONE?

What, then, may be done? A difficult question to
answer ; but, to begin with that which is of greatest im¬
portance, all action should be taken only in full accord¬
ance with the expressed wishes of the colonists. The
business of any League having their interests and the
cohesion of the whole Empire at heart must be first to
make plain to all that anything of novelty which may be
proposed is mentioned as a matter for discussion, and
not for the purpose of pressing it with England’s superior
power, moral or physical, on unwilling fellow-country¬
men. There must be no possibility that any one should
imagine that “ Downing-street rule is again to be revived”
at the antipodes or in Canada.

It may be supposed that the very impossibility and
absurdity of any such language would carry with it its
own condemnation, but the diffidence of colonists as to
their own strength and position is notable. It is not seen
only with Anglo-Saxons under our own flag. A diffidence
and desire for recognition in the old country is shown
by many in the States, although the very men who show

io6 IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

it would be the first to deny it ; and indeed a want of
confidence in their material strength is impossible.

But if there be no such diffidence and want of assur¬
ance in stamping as best what is native, why is it that so
much sensitiveness is shown to European opinion ? Why
is it that any “chaff” such as that written by Dickens
should produce a sore impression, while it does not
matter to a European what the transatlantic opinion
about him or his country may be ? For one extract from
American or Canadian papers which Englishmen see
copied into British journals, the New World “organs”
have a hundred, detailing what is thought, done, or said
in the old country. English opinion stamps literary and
social worth. French opinion stamps as right whatever
mode of dress Paris chooses to dictate.

And this want of confidence in native worth, ill-
founded as it is, plays a part in creating sensitiveness
lest English fashion and thought should have too much
influence on Colonial statesmen ; and our children dis¬
play a sort of affectionate distrust of proposals purely
English, knowing that the dear old mother used in old
days much to love to have her own way.

Colonial statesmen have experienced their country¬
men’s distrust if they have been too long resident in
England. It is feared by the suspicious that they have
become affected by insular prejudices. We see the same
tendency in regard to American Ministers, who are
attacked by their political opponents if they are very
complimentary in public speeches to Britain, and are

WHA T MA Y NO IV BE DONE ?

107

suspected of becoming too much saturated with the in¬
sidious charm of Old World society.

This feeling is one which is foolish and utterly un¬
worthy of the great peoples who send their representa¬
tives here. But it exists, and is worth taking into account
for this reason, that we must take care for some time to
come not to allow any suspicion to grow that we wish to
influence Colonial representatives to support what may
advantage us only.

"When the Colonies desire anything they will not be
slow to express their wish. Canada has expressed her
desire that her envoy should be raised in rank and im¬
portance, and have the weight which must necessarily
attach to the utterance of one who is the mouthpiece of
a young nation. She has found that in order adequately
to represent her views in commercial policy it is neces¬
sary to have one of her first public servants present in
London to explain what is wanted, and to be associated
with the British Minister at any foreign Court with whose
government a treaty of commerce is desired.

Any body of politicians such as that incorporated in
the League can at once promote the union of the Empire
by ascertaining what is the opinion of a particular Colonial
government through conversation with its representative,
and co-operate thus in influencing the public mind to
support the views he enunciates. These will not always
be identical with English views on commerce, or even on
questions of mutual defence, but they will be what the
Colony thinks best for itself, and it is by working for its

io8

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

welfare that its allegiance to the Crown, and alliance with
fellow citizens must be purchased.

The diffidence of which mention has been made has
prevented the Australian Colonies from giving to their
Agents-General so distinct a position of importance as
that secured under the title of “ High Commissioner” to
the Canadian. When during the sitting of the Conven¬
tion summoned to Sydney for the purpose of consulting
as to the federation of Australia, the Agents-General pro¬
posed some action, they were informed that they were in
no wise to consider themselves as acting in a diplomatic
capacity.

This denial to them of any powers beyond those in¬
volved in making contracts for engineering works, bor¬
rowing loans, or superintending emigration, throws a
direct difficulty in the way of those who would look to
them to indicate how best to help the Colonies.

The action of Canada in investing her agent with
greater powers is wiser, and will probably be followed
by the Australians as soon as Confederation among them
shall have led them to initiate a national policy in trade,
whether that national policy be one of Free Trade or of
Protection.

Many, even among the Canadians, are shy of confiding
too much to their High Commissioner, and there is a
sentiment born of diffidence, that would see the exalta¬
tion of the man, rather than the exaltation of the envoy of
the nation, in a full recognition of his importance. They
especially who are ignorant of the actual working of the

WHA T MAY NOW BE D ONE ? 1 0g

office are the foremost to show impatience at the ad¬
vancement in the name of Canada of politicians with
whom they have not agreed in their own country.

It is most unwise that any party rancour should follow
a man once he represents in England the whole country ;
but to this patriotic state of mind Canadians will only
arrive when each party has in turn had the nomination of
an envoy. 1 here is so much dislike to any assumption
of personal pre-eminence in all young countries, that the
jealousy of the individual is apt to overshadow the interest
of the State. It may be more easy to give Colonial repre¬
sentatives weight and real dignity, without giving them
the personal importance which is certainly their due, and
should be freely given, not only as soon as their Govern¬
ments ask for it, but unless their Governments object to it.

There is reason to believe that Canada is fully satisfied
with the position which has been given to her first two
High Commissioners. They have both been granted all
opportunity they have demanded of making separate
commercial treaties with foreign Governments, under the
auspices, and with the cordial advice and assistance of the
British ambassador, although he represents a Free Trade
country and they were negotiating for reciprocal trade
relations under a high tariff. If Canada cares to have
her envoy associated more intimately with the Imperial
Government machinery, she has probably only to ask that
such position be assigned to him to obtain what she asks.

It would seem on all accounts to be wise that in
questions likely to lead to war or trouble, our Colonies

no

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

should have a voice, and that no difficulty be incurred
which could harm them, without warning being given to
them of the risk to be run. They should be embraced
in, and made part of, the machinery of Imperial Govern¬
ment.

How is this to be done ? The difficulties connected
with any personal aggrandisement of their office, if
such there be, might be evaded, and real power of
being heard in Council might be given, by granting to
Agents- General the privileges of membership of the
House of Commons without the power of voting.

The power of voting they would not wish for. A
greater influence would be theirs if, sitting in the House
as spectators on commonplace occasions, and guarded
against even the suspicion of party influence by absten¬
tion from all debate save where the question affected
their country, they should on extraordinary occasions,
involving the Imperial issues of peace or war, be heard in
the assembly. A speech delivered in the House by the
mouthpiece of a great Colony would have much weight,
and be listened to with respect. Such an utterance
would in the most effectual manner inform the assembly
in which most power resides, of the manner in which
our kindred beyond the sea must look upon questions
deeply affecting themselves as well as us.

The idea is new, and therefore perhaps antagonistic
to our instincts, but the whole development and the
very existence of our peculiarly constituted Empire is
new. The question is not whether a proposal be good

JVHA T MA V NOW BE DONE ?

m

because it has not been expressed before this date, but
whether, the novelty of the position being once recognized,
such arrangements would not best meet the new wants
created, and give voice to the different interests involved.

The knowledge that a Colonial Agent has a right to sit
and speak, although not to vote, would be a strong in¬
centive to the Colonies to send their best men to fill a
place which would, from such a practice as that sug¬
gested, derive enhanced importance, without subjecting
the individual so favoured to suspicion of a desire to
deck himself in “ fuss and feathers.” The position of a
representative is familiar to the Colonial mind. The
assumption of the role of ambassador on the part of
any one of his fellow-citizens fills the Colonist’s mind
with ill-defined misgivings, that the envoy has become
too fine a bird to represent the plain and straightforward
countrymen he has left behind him. The glamour of St.
James’s is supposed to enchant him evilly. The air of St.
Stephen’s would not be held to be so deleterious, and
might even be allowed to invigorate him to perform his
duty, in stating his country’s needs and expectations.

These gentle jealousies, slight weaknesses, and the
youthful coyness to which allusion has been made, ought
not to prevail, and most men will be of opinion that they
cannot long exist. The readiest way of getting at Colonial
wishes is to frankly recognize the position of the High
Commissioner and any others appointed on the same
footing, as that of envoys, and to make any such officers
part and parcel of our Imperial consultative Council.

1 12

IMPERIAL FED ERA TIOiV.

It has already been mentioned that a Board of Advice
for Trade and the Plantations formerly existed as part of
the Privy Council. If the Agents were made members
of such a committee, and had power to ask to see papers
which could be shown to Parliament, and had regular
opportunities of meeting with the Secretary of State,
much would be done to ensure that which is so necessary,
namely, the undertaking of no great Imperial matter with¬
out the knowledge, not only of the Home Government, but
of the Colonial Governments. Without the consideration
for the Colonies which can alone be shown by consulta¬
tion, it is conceivable that the strain involved in being
made to bear the pains and penalties of a war undertaken
without their consent, may make them impatient of con¬
nection with Britain. It is no answer to this fear to say
that no signs of such hanging back have hitherto arisen.

At present the advantages and the sentiment of union
are so strong that much may be endured. But it must
be remembered that it is well not to drive a willing horse
too hard. Except in 1812 and 1 8 1 3 no Colony has felt the
brunt of war. But what happened then in Canada, when
her people were too much scattered to have the power of
expressing themselves as a nation, may happen again,
and the country might become the battle-field for fighting
out a dispute between the United States and England.
It is all very well to say, pray God such a thing may
never be ! So say we all, but what has happened may
happen again, and although it is very unlikely that any
quarrel could arise in which Canada would not be quite

WHAT MAY NOW BE DONE? n.,

as much interested as England, yet now that she has a
national voice she will probably wish to use it, to indicate
what may seem to her an adequate or an inadequate cause
of quarrel in a dispute which, if carried into war, would
be to hei a life and death struggle. Even such a com¬
paratively trifling matter as a disturbance in Ireland touches
Canada, for her militia have to turn out in arms to
defeat the aims of the Hibernians who imagine that the
easiest way to alarm London is to wear a green uniform
in an hotel at Niagara.

Austialia, again, has to guard her ports and man her
batteries it a Russian Cossack fires a shot against an
Afghan outpost in Central Asia. Steam communication
has made the world very small, and our Empire, situated
in all parts of it, feels the shock of conflict through all its
limbs. The members of our wide commonwealth must
eventually be consulted. How? Most easily through
the admission to Council of the gentlemen they send to
London.

It may be said that these envoys would not, if collec¬
tively consulted, have much weight. They would not be
so responsible to Colonial opinion as, for example, are
the senators of the United States, elected by the people,
and endowed by them with power even greater than
that given to the members of the House of Represen¬
tatives. But the Government from which the Agents-
General derive their commission is in itself the very
essence of the responsibility founded on popular power..
The Colonial envoys are nothing but the mouthpieces of'

9

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

114

the Colonial Governments of the day, and therefore in
one sense represent the quintessence of responsibility,
and are in constant private, personal, and official com¬
munication by letter and telegraph with their Govern¬
ments. They are often men having the confidence of
both parties in their local Chambers. They are always
of high standing in their own country, and, in the case of
the High Commissioners sent from Canada, have been
selected from those who for long years have been amongst
the most distinguished statesmen of their land.

In their utterances, if anywhere, we can find the voice
that can inform us of the feeling and of the actual phase
of popular sentiment among their countrymen, as well as
of the intelligent aim and purpose of the Cabinet whose
servants they are. Their formal instructions, again, and
the public despatches addressed to them by their local
Governments, have been sent to them with the knowledge
of the Imperial Governors presiding over the Colonial
State. Should the Governors see fit to warn the Home
authority that Her Majesty’s loyal and powerful Opposition
within the local Chambers invalidate to some extent the
opinions of the accredited envoy, the Secretary of State
is able to take the advice given, and the demand or state¬
ment made, with the necessary grain of salt. Even if a
consultation with these gentlemen should only prove to
be a makeshift until a more complete plan be adopted, it
is a makeshift which may save mistakes. Regular oppor¬
tunities given for consultation could not by any possibility
involve the Colonies more than they are involved at pre-

J VHA T MA Y NOW BE D ONE ? 1 1 5

sent in the expense and obligations of England’s foreign
policy, although such entanglement might be feared by
them if it be not made perfectly plain that no change in
our relations in this regard be intended by the grant
of such opportunities of consultation.

Nothing but good can come from the consultation of
High Commissioners and Agents-General, and their in¬
corporation by such means as part of the Imperial diplo¬
matic machinery. They would have as much power of
interrogating the Secretary of State as have the members
of the House of Commons when they ask questions on
all affairs, foreign and domestic. “Interpellations”
would, however, only be made by them if they were not
on a Privy Council Committee such as that suggested
by Lord Grey and others. Want of knowledge of the
tendencies of Home or Colonial policy would cease
to be a danger. AVhether the advice of the agents be
sought by admitting them, while they are in office, to
the Privy Council, and by making them in some way
members of a revived Board like the former body called
the “ Board for Trade and Plantations,” or whether they
be incorporated in the Colonial Office, does not much
matter.

These points are details, important perhaps, but only
as they affect the carrying out the principle of no Im¬
perial action without Imperial consultation ; no war risks
without warning. Should meetings of such a Council
ever be held, the British Minister for Foreign Affairs
and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Prime

1 1 6 I M PERI A L FED ERA T10N.

Minister, and perhaps the Secretary to the Board of
Trade would furnish the only necessary British members.
It would be most important, especially at first, that in
the constitution of such Council there should be no
suspicion that British members desired more than their
proper share of influence in the deliberations.

Unlike the Indian Council, which is formed of veterans
who have served in the army or the civil service in
India, this Council would represent the present and
living opinion of the people interested in the action
resulting from any Imperial policy. The advantages to
be derived from the constitution of some such body
might be expected to be these. We should derive a
more intimate knowledge of the desires of each Colonial
Government. There would be more opportunity than
exists at present, for Colonial envoys to bring their desires
to the notice of the British Government and their brother
colonists. They would have opportunity given them to
combine and further the views of one of their number
or to declare against any impracticable project, and it
may also be assumed that there would be less danger
of any imprudent course being embarked upon by any
one Colony. Unadvised action has sometimes been
precipitately undertaken, and has not been effectual
because it has been begun without consultation with
others and with Britain.

It is often difficult for Britain to show to Colonial Govern¬
ments the important need and necessity of co-operation
in certain measures for general defence, a matter too

IVBA T MA Y NO IV BE DONE ? 1 1 7

often lightly regarded by the Colonies. The further they
stretch their railways, and the greater the expansion of
their people over vast territories, the more vulnerable
does their position become, and extension without organ¬
ization means yet greater weakness, hardly to be balanced
by increased facilities of transport given by railway com¬
munication, for railways may be captured, and used to
serve as the means of transport, by an enemy.

In any such Council as that we have under review, we
should be able to elicit the opinion of the Colonial Govern¬
ments ot the day on each question as it arises, and it
would be more easy to turn a deaf ear to the advocacy
of any mere theoretical plans for a change, because these
would be at once discouraged by such a body having
authority and possessed of a thorough knowledge.

It may be gathered from what has already been said
that the isolation would be lessened for each member of
our great family, and there would consequently be greater
strength for any policy taken up with the general ap¬
proval and knowledge of the whole Empire.

If some such plan were approved of, yet further effect
would be given to what has been shown to be the wish
of the Imperial Government, namely, to work on the
lines of the wishes of the Colonies. Free access to the
Secretary of State and to foreign Governments has been
secured by the steps taken by Canada and accepted by
the Home Government. All that remains to be done is
to make certain that where the wishes of any one Colony,
or the policy of England, cannot be followed without

1 1 8 IMPERIAL FEDERA TION.

touching other interests within the pale of the Empire,
due notice shall be given to those representing such in¬
terests. The necessity for this will become every year
more apparent, for each year sees a greater amount of
the earth’s surface not only overrun but actually in¬
habited by our people, so that which affects one country
under our flag affects all in a greater or smaller degree.

It becomes dangerous therefore to make any arrange¬
ments with any one member of the family without in¬
forming the others. We need not fear that by taking the
more important Governments into our confidence we shall
cripple our own action. The tendency will certainly be
to promote peace, but in case of future war we shall
be stronger to meet and endure the strain by having
secured the complete accordance of our Colonies.

That they have a right to be heard in these questions
involving peace or war is still disputed by some among
us, but their common risk has been proved to involve
them in expense, and justifies a demand for formal
opportunity of speech.

But besides the good the Imperial Federation League
may effect through the assertion of the great principles
of individual and corporate freedom leading to unity,
there are many minor points of interest to the Colonies
worth its consideration and support.

The encouragement of judicious Emigration is, for in¬
stance, of great value to the Colonies. When the wild
lands of Australia were still under the management of the

IV II A T A/A Y NO JV BE DONE ?

119

Home authorities, a vast proportion of the income they
yielded, when sold to settlers, was used for the purpose of
stocking with men the Colony from which the money was
derived. It is certainly, as has been often proved, a
direct and positive commercial gain to England to direct
her surplus population to her own states beyond the sea,
when, as is the case of Canada, they take “four times as
much per head of the population of British products as
her neighbours south of the line of demarcation.”

From the table annexed to this pamphlet, it will be
seen that Australia’s demand for British goods excels
even the large relative amount Canada takes, as com¬
pared with foreign states. There are a few foreign
countries whose increase in trade with us has been
nearly as great, but our own people are our best cus¬
tomers “ out and out,” and even where the increase of
our trade with them has been least, it has been favour¬
able as compared with the increase with our largest
foreign customers. As we have an addition to our popu¬
lation of about half a million yearly we can spare many
a family, while keeping at home a greater number than
our ancestors would have believed the country capable of
sustaining.

Should any assistance be given by the State in direct¬
ing emigration, it would be rvell to consider a suggestion
recently made,1 which reminds one of the economy
practised in a boiler where the steam instead of being

Sir C. Tapper, High Commissioner for Canada.

120

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

wasted is used to heat the fresh water from which more
steam is generated. Speaking of the advances of money
made by private individuals to emigrants who acquire a
right to the land on which they are settled only after
they have paid the loan, Sir Charles Tupper advocates a
similar advance by the State. He says :

“ I would combine three agencies in this operation. I would ask
the Imperial Government to appropriate a million pounds sterling,
or, if they preferred, only half that sum — for that, I believe, would
be ample to vindicate my assertion that it is practicable, and, as
repaid, it could constantly be reinvested for the same purpose. I
would ask them to lend that sum of money, free of interest, to those
high-minded philanthropic capitalists who have shown their readi¬
ness to expend their own money in the promotion of this work, and
I would ask Mr. Tuke to see that the money was well and wisely
expended for the purposes for which it was intended — to see that
only suitable persons were selected, persons who were calculated to
succeed on being placed on the soil. The Government of Canada
would receive these men with open arms ; it would contribute to
the payment of their passage-money across the Atlantic ; and it
would place at their disposal agencies throughout the country which
would give them aid and assistance in every way. The Canadian
Government would further place in their hands, as a free gift for
every emigrant, 160 acres of rich soil ready for the plough. Re¬
garded as a commercial enterprise, and from the standpoint that
every one thus sent out would become a consumer of the products
of British industry,”

Sir Charles claims for the scheme that it would benefit
England and Canada, and the same plan might be
adopted elsewhere.

It may be as well here to cite briefly the conditions
under which emigration can be carried out as far as
passage expenses are involved. It must, however, be
remembered that as a rule it is essential for the emi-

WHAT MA Y NOW BE D ONE ? 1 2 1

grant to have some ready money in his pocket on
landing.

The Australian and New Zealand Governments principally
work by a ‘Nomination Order.’ This is as follows : — A resident
in a Colony desires to have his relatives or friends to come out to
him. He proceeds to the Immigration DepCt and nominates his
friends, paying a small sum — generally £5 for a couple. The
papers are sent over to the Agent-General in England, and also to
the parties here. After these documents are inspected, the shipping
order is made out, and ship’s kit purchased, & c. The parties then
proceed to the Colony, and join their friends. The Colonial Govern¬
ments believe this secures a respectable class of people, and ensures
the emigrants being well looked after by the settlers themselves. It
generally takes four or five months to write out for, and receive
back, the ‘Nomination Order.’

“The offices of the Agents-General are open from 10 a. nr. to
4 p.m., and Saturdays till 1 p.nr.

“New South Wales (capital, Sydney) — 5, Westminster
Chambers. £6 only for each couple under 40 ; young men under
3°> £4, children, 3 to 14, £1, under 3 free, and ship’s kit given.
Nomination suspended. Colony very prosperous and best to go to.
Single women, £ 2 . A splendid chance which many ought to em¬
brace. Read Christian Knowledge Society’s book (2jd.) on New
South Wales.

“ \ ictoria (capital, Melbourne) — 8, Victoria Chambers. Assists
no emigrants. Steam there in forty-five days. Land orders granted
to all paying their passage. Steerage, £15 to /20.

“ Western Australia. — By nomination orders only from those
living in the Colony. For further particulars apply to Messrs.
Bethel, no, Fenchurch Street, City, E.C.

“South Australia (capital, Adelaide) — 8, Victoria Chambers.
There are 600 nominated persons this season, who will alone be
sent out.

“Queensland — 1, Westminster Chambers, Westminster Abbey,
S.W. Single women, domestics, under an experienced matron, ^1 ;
unmarried farm labourers under 30, £1 ; other suitable emigrants,
£8 for ocean passage and ship’s kit. Apply to Messrs. Gellatly,

122

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

109, Leadenhall Street, E.C. Read Christian Knowledge Society’s
book -on Queensland, 2jd. (Northumberland Avenue, S.W.).

“Tasmania — 79J, Gracechurch Street, City, E.C. All emigra¬
tion is entirely suspended.

“New Zealand — 7, Westminster Chambers. The Colony is
sending out but few, except on nomination. Domestics, free ; some
suitable adult male emigrants, £4 each. The wives and families of
husbands out there assisted to join them. Read the Christian
Knowledge Society’s new book, 2^d. Many excellent openings and
a beautiful climate.

“Cape of Good Hope — 10, Albert Mansions, Victoria Street.
Emigrants sent out only after nomination.

“ Natal — 21, Finsbury Circus, City of London, E.C. Emigra¬
tion has ceased.

“Canada— 9, Victoria Street, Westminster Abbey, S.W. At
present assisted passages to Canada are very cheap. From Liver¬
pool to Quebec : agriculturalists, ^3 ; unmarried women (16 to 35),
£t, each; all children under 12, £2 ; infants under twelve months,
I os. About £2 8s. extra from Quebec to Winnipeg; children,
3 to 12, £1 4s. Rate fares from Quebec to places in Ontario
from 10s, to 25s., according to distances. Emigrants in every case
should have some money on landing, to keep them going until they
begin to earn wages. The first emigrant vessel for Quebec direct
starts the second week in April, and they continue till the end of
October.

£

s.

d.

Emigrant’s rail to Liverpool

. O

12

6

Cab, &c., across Liverpool, &c.

0

3

6

Ocean passage (2,700 miles) .

3

O

O

Hire of bedding and mess utensils.

. O

0

3

6

Provision on railway in Canada

0

6

0

•

£4

6

0

There is no doubt that patriots must look with regret
at the great numbers who go to swell the strength of
alien states when the settlers would be as happy under

WHAT MA V NOW BE DONE ?

123

their own flag. If trade does not imply a Colony or
Plantation, there is no doubt that a “ Plantation” does
imply trade, and that by encouraging the growth of our
Colonies we swell the bulk of our own commercial
business.

It has been suggested that Trades Associations can
confer among themselves in whatever part of the Empire
they may be formed, and that good advice and help may
thus be given. It is not probable that the workmen in
any given trade in any locality would encourage immigra¬
tion from an old country to the newer centres of industry.
An inrush of new workmen would depress the wages on
which the artizans subsist. But the knowledge of the
views of workmen in the different countries concerned,
tend to show what classes of labour would bear multipli¬
cation of the number of hands employed, and to what
promising outlet any movement might be directed. For
one class of labour almost every Colony is ready, namely,
for that afforded by the agricultural element, and it is
most noteworthy how easily this can be manufactured
from the unpromising material contributed by the cities’
poor.

During the last year many families have been sent to
Canada under the auspices of an Association that selected
as the recipients of their charity, men from the East end of
London. Although many of these men had never been
away from the city, and had never laid a hand to a spade
or plough, and had never sown, and had succeeded in
reaping nothing in the streets and lanes and alleys of

124

IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

London ; yet the accounts received this winter from
them, show that with the help they have obtained for
outfits they have succeeded well, and are now happily
placed as yeomen proprietors upon the great prairies of
the West of British North America.

This is a most remarkable result, for if so much good
can be done to such men by furnishing them with some
little judiciously given assistance, what may not be ex¬
pected from a well-trained artizan or poor rural tenant,
who might find a place for his special labour in the
Colonies, and who could, as a rule, be always provided
with a grant of land ? An organization amongst workmen
placed in our crowded towns, and having branch asso¬
ciations in town and country in the Colonies, would be
able to know when and where and whence movements of
the people should take place. The Governments con¬
cerned could well aid in such a plan. In London, by the
information supplied from Colonial sources, the British
Government could each week inform the various classes
of the unemployed what trades and what localities across
the seas asked for labour, and what would be the cost of
the voyage.

Still easier would it be for the Home authorities to
lighten the poor-rates in Britain by the transhipment
of children of paupers to educational “ Homes ” pre¬
pared for them in the Colonies. A little co-operation
between the Governments would secure to the Colonies a
valuable influx of child emigrants, for none could object
to a class of children on account of their poverty alone ;

1VHA T AIA Y NO IF BE DONE ?

125

while the over-crowding in many parishes of the mother
land would be stayed, and the rates relieved. Of course
the children must be those of the “deserving poor.”

Perhaps the influence of the League may render less
marked the isolation of the “bars” and “faculties” of
the Empire. With the lawyers it is certainly not essen¬
tial that a “call to the Bar” in England or Ontario
should make the barrister carry his home privileges with
him. Scots advocates can manage well enough for
themselves without being able to gain at Edinburgh any
rights in “the Temple,” and lawyers generally may be
trusted to take care of themselves. But in the case of
medical men, would it not conduce to a good under¬
standing if the degrees of certain specified seats of
learning could be held as equivalent throughout the
Empire. Could not the British Government Medical
Advisory Board arrange that, say, in every five years, a
joint commission of British and Colonial physicians and
surgeons should revise the list of those institutions whose
degree should be “ Imperially ” valid ?

To conclude this review of what may be done toward
Federation, it will be seen that the belief held is that
more faith should be placed in listening and in learning
than in prescribing and doctoring. There are a few
dangers to be guarded against, but these can be avoided
by keeping our ears open to listen, and our eyes to see.
Encouragement of the statement of wants, and the ready
departure, if departure be demanded, from routine and

126

IMPERIAL FEDERA TION.

bureaucratic tradition, is the great and essential necessity.
To bear in mind that development is rapid, and novel¬
ties must come with new conditions ; that to repress or
“ snub ” requests for change only because they are un¬
known and half understood, is dangerous ; that mutual
interests are the real safeguards against disunion, and
that these can best be strengthened by helping local
wants, is, in brief, the prime element of success in keep¬
ing our Empire one and indivisible. We must recognize
the necessity for the full growth of each country com¬
prised in the great Union in accordance with each
country’s own idea of what is best.

APPENDIX.

129

TABLE I.

Colony.

1

Population.

Revenue.

1871

18S1

1883

1870

1880

1883

Canada .

3,686,100

4,324,800

estimate.

4,500,000

3,396,900

4,855,700

7,667,400

New South Wales...

503,900

751,500

800,000

2,575,300

4,904,200

*7,410,700

Victoria .

73I>5°°

862,400

931,800

3,261,900

4,621,300

3,611,300

New Zealand .

+256,400

■{489,900

+540,900

1,733,000

3,285,000

3,871,300

Tasmania .

101,800

I15,7°o

126,200

270,100

442,200

562,200

South Australia ...

185,600

1279,900

304,500

860, IOO

2,028,000

2,060,100

West Australia

*5,350

29,700

31,700

98,130

180,050

284,360

Queensland .

120,100

213,500

287,500

786,350

1,612,300

2,583,500

Cape of Good Hope

§582,600

11721,000

Hi, 249, 800

831,200

3,541,7°°

5,443,500

Totals ... |

6,193,350

7,788,400

8,772,400

13,812,980

25,470,450

35,494,360

Colony.

Expenditure.

Debt.

187O

1880

1883

187O

0

CO

CO

1883

Canada .

3,546,900

6,894,100

8,937,800

16,749,800

31,760,700

33,013,900

New South Wales...

3,298,400

5,560,100

*6,347,800

9,68l,IOO

14,903,900

*18,721,200

Victoria .

3,428,400

4,875,000

5,651,900

II,924,800

22,060,800

26,132,300

New Zealand .

2,697,400

4,019,900

3,924,000

7,841,900

28,583,200

31,385,400

Tasmania .

282,600

4^5.200

533,000

1,268,700

J, 943,7°°

2,385,600

South Australia ...

949,600

1,923,600

2,330,100

1,944,600

9,865,500

13,891,900

West Australia

IX3/°5°

204,340

240,570

**35,000

361,000

607,800

Queensland .

827,200

1,673,700

2,242,800

3,509,200

12,192,200

14,917,800

Cape of Good Hope 1

795,700

3,742,700

6,341,70°

1,106,500

II,39T,800

20,8ll,000

Totals

1

15,939,250

29,308,64036,549,670

1

54,061,600

133,062,800

161,866,900

* Figures for 1882. + Exclusive of Maoris, about 40,000. $ Exclusive of aborigines.

§ Including 86,201 British Caffraria (census 1865).

II Including 122,154 British Caffraria (census 1875).

IT Approximate 1881. ** Figures for 1872.

IO

TABLE II.

130

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INDEX

A.

Agents-General, Position of, 10S.

“ Alabama,” 69.

Amicus Curiae, England in Colonial
Matters, 77.

Appellate Jurisdiction, 71.

Arbitration, British, 77.

Armaments, 42.

Australia, 6, 16, 99.

, Emigration to, 121.

,, Federation in, 18, 19.

,, Trade of, 82-84.

,, Wealth of, 82, 83.

Bar, The, 125.

Blake, Hon. E., i3.

C.

Canada, 21, 99.

,, Constitution of, 66-72.

,, Emigration to, 122.

,, England and, 43-60.

,, French in, 3.

,, _ Trade of, 85, 86.

Canadian Pacific Railway, 89.

Cape of Good Hope, 5, 81, 122.

Cartier, Sir George, 45.

Colonial feeling on voice in Imperial |
policy, 36.

Colonial Office, 38, 58, 115.

,, Policy, 43-60.

Commerce, 80-97, 119-
Commercial Treaties, 47, 56.

Contiguity of Imperial possessions,

Co-operation, 116, et seq.

Crown, Rights of, 61.

Customs Duties, 87.

D.

Defences, Colonial, 17, 41, 74, 91, 116.
Delegates, see Envoys.

Demand for goods, Colonial, 119.
Diffidence of new Anglo - Saxon
Countries, 105.

Dufferin, Lord, 49.

Durham, Lord, 45, 53.

E.

Egotism, Political, 35.

Elgin, Lord, 53, 63."

Emigration, 1 18, 124.

Enthusiasm, 101.

Envoys of Colonies, 57.

,, in House of Commons, 27-30,
no.

,, Colonial, Suspicion of, 15, 106.
Expense of Colonies, 17.

F.

Federation, Imperial, Origin of pro¬
posal, 1-13.

Federation, Plans for, 14-31, 105-126.
,, Existing, 61.

,, League, 11, 14.

Federal Parliament, 28, 29.

Forster, Right Hon. W. E., 7, 14.
French in Canada, 3.

,, Recidivists, 88.

Freedom, Colonial, 65.

Free Trade, 50.

G.

Galt, Sir Alexander, 21, 56, 57.
Germany, Annexations of, 88, 104.

,, in the Pacific, 88.

Gordon, General, 101.

Go Slow, 32-42.

Governors, Colonial, 38, 48, 61-70.
Governor-General, 53, 56, 67-69.

Grey, Lord, 21, 46, 47, 67.

. Halifax (Canada), 17.

High - Commissionership of Canada,
56, 108.

134

INDEX.

House of Commons, Colonial Repre¬
sentations, 27-30, no.

House of Lords, Colonial Representa¬
tions, 31.

I.

Imperial Senate, 27, in.

Increase of Colonial trade, 8.

India, 80.

K.

Kingston, Canada, Military College,
95-

L.

League, Federation, n, 14.

Letellier, Lieut. -Governor of Quebec,
79-

Lords, Nomination to, 31.

Loyalists, American, 44.

Loyalty of Colonies, 103.

M.

Macdonald, Right Hon. Sir John, 53,
55, 65. _

Mackenzie, Hon. Alexander, 49, 50.
Marine Protection, 93.

Metcalfe, Governor-General, 63.
Military Appointments, 75.

,, Forces, 91.

„ Training, 75, 93-97.

N.

Natal, 82.

Naval Defences, 91, 93, 96.
New Guinea, 88, 104.

New South Wales, 82, 87, 121.
New Zealand, 93.

O.

Objections to Federation, 33.

Old Colonial Policy and new depar¬
tures, 43-60.

P.

Patronage, 66.

,, Political Influence and, 75.
Position of Colonial Envoys, 58, 108.
Present Federation, 61-79.

Privy Council, British, 20, 71, 74.

,, ,, Colonial Appeal to,

discussed, 21, 112.
Protection v. Free Trade, 47, 52.
Provincial Courts of Law, 72.

Q-

Quebec, Province of, 29.

Queen, The, 79.

Queensland, 121.

R.

Recent Manifestations of Spirit of
Union, 98-104.

Reform Party, Canadian, 49.
Reservation of Bills for Imperial As¬
sent, 48-60.

Responsibility of Governor - Generals
for keeping International Law, 68-70.
Responsibility in Voting in an Im¬
perial Council, 30.

“Rings,” American Trade Associa¬
tions, 52.

S.

Secession, Inadmissible, 26.

Secretary of State, 48, 114.

Selection of Governors, 67.

Senate of United States, 26.

,, Imperial, 27.

Service, Right Hon. W., 18.

Soudan, Service in, 100.

Supreme Commands, 75.

,, Court, The, 72.

T.

Todd, Alpheus, Mr., 73.

Toronto, 7.

Trade, Colonial, 8.

,, Increase in, 83.

Training Schools, Military, 93.

Travel, Influence of, on Imperial
Unity, 5.

“Trent Outrage,” 99, 102.

Tupper, Hon. C., High Commis¬
sioner, 59.

Tupper, Hon. C., on Emigration, 120.

U.

Union, Feelings of, 79, 99, 104.

V.

Victoria, 83, 87, 121.

Voluntary Military Co-operation, 100.

W.

War, Colonial voice in, no, 112, 118.
What may now be done, 105-126.
Winnipeg, Voice from, on Federa-
tion, 33.

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